Amendment to “Exchange of Information Regulations”

Last Oct. 17, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) issued Revenue Regulations (RR) 22-2018 to amend RR 10-2010, otherwise known as the “Exchange of Information Regulations” relative to the provision on Notice to Taxpayers.

Under RR 10-2010, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue must notify the taxpayer in writing that a foreign tax authority is requesting exchange of information held by financial institutions. This notification should be done within 60 days following the transmittal of all information requested from and provided by the concerned financial institution to the requesting treaty partner.

Under the amended provision, the notice to the taxpayer must be given only after receiving communication from the requesting jurisdiction that the investigation has already attained finality in cases where notification is likely to undermine the chance of success of the investigation by the requesting jurisdiction; and the requesting jurisdiction has made a substantiated request for a deferment of the notification based on the aforementioned grounds.

The new regulation was issued to ensure effective and full compliance with international standards for exchanging information.

This takes effect 15 days following complete publication in a newspaper of general circulation.

Please be guided accordingly.