REVENUE REGULATIONS NO. 3-2005 issued on February 17, 2005 prescribes the rules and regulations implementing Executive Order (EO) No. 398 and requiring timely and complete payment of taxes as a pre-condition for entering into and as a continuing obligation in contracts with government. EO 398 provides that all persons, natural or judicial, local or foreign, desiring to enter into or participate in any contract with the government, its departments, agencies and instrumentalities for the supply of goods and services, should as a pre-condition, submit, along with their proposal and/or bid, a copy of their latest income tax and business tax returns. Said returns must be duly stamped and received by the BIR and duly validated with the tax payments made thereon. For this purpose, tax returns filed with Authorized Agent Banks (AABs) or through Electronic Filing and Payment System (eFPS) with corresponding reference numbers shall be deemed duly stamped and received by the BIR. Also part of the requirement for the bid/offer to be accepted for evaluation is the Tax Clearance from the BIR attesting that the taxpayer has no outstanding Final Assessment Notice and/or delinquent account. Requests for Tax Clearance by the bidding taxpayers must be made in writing addressed to the Chief, Collection Enforcement Division, BIR National Office (Telefax 928-7466). Said request must contain the following information: name of taxpayer requesting the tax clearance, its telephone/fax number, its Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), the Revenue District Office (RDO) with jurisdiction over the taxpayer, the name of the procuring government agency, the name of the responsible procurement officer, and his telephone/fax number. The submitted Tax Clearance must also be verified for authenticity by the procuring government entity either through the BIR Contact Center (Tel. No. 981-8888) or through the BIR Portal (www.my.bir.gov.ph), which will have an updated list of participating firms with Tax Clearances. To implement EO No. 398, effective April 1, 2005, all prospective participants to any government procurement of goods and services are mandated to file their income and business tax returns and other required information electronically using the eFPS. Effective May 1, 2005, only tax returns filed thru eFPS will be accepted as the required submission under the EO. As an interim procedure, non-eFPS filed tax returns and payment documents may still be submitted to procuring government entities until April 30, 2005, provided that these documents must first be presented to the RDO with jurisdiction over the taxpayer for authenticity check and stamping. For eFPS generated or printed Tax Returns, the documents must be checked for authenticity either through the BIR Contact Center or through the BIR Portal. For non-eFPS filed tax returns, verification of its authenticity shall be done by sending a fax copy of the tax return to the BIR Contact Center (Fax No. 981-7202) with a covering letter stating the name of the procuring government agency, the name of the responsible procurement officer and the officer’s telephone/fax numbers.