BIR seal badge suspended: what online sellers still must do
The BIR seal badge rule for online sellers and creators is suspended under RMC 113-2026. What changed, why, and which Philippine tax rules still apply.
Why it matters
Philippine online sellers and creators no longer face an October 31 badge deadline, but the registration and tax rules behind the badge still apply, and the BIR has said the requirement is under review, not cancelled.
More than 52,700 online sellers, freelancers and content creators in the Philippines had already put a QR-coded BIR seal badge on their pages when the rule requiring it was suspended on October 26, 2026, five days before the deadline. The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the country’s tax agency, paused it over privacy and technical concerns.
Quick answer: Under Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 113-2026, online businesses no longer have to display the BIR Registration Seal Badge, and the October 31, 2026 deadline is off “until further notice.” Nobody will be penalized solely for not showing it. Sellers who already have a badge may keep it up if they want. Registration, invoicing and filing rules are unchanged.
The suspension came from BIR Commissioner Charlito Martin R. Mendoza, who signed the circular on a Monday. The badge system itself has not been scrapped. What changed is that posting it online is no longer compulsory, at least for now.
What was the BIR seal badge rule?
The badge was introduced by RMC No. 38-2026 on April 29, 2026. It is a small image, generated from a taxpayer’s Certificate of Registration (COR), with a QR code that anyone can scan to check that the seller is registered with the BIR.
Before the badge, the BIR’s position under Revenue Regulations (RR) Nos. 7-2024 and 15-2024 was that registered businesses should show their full COR, including online. That document carries details such as the taxpayer’s Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and registered address. The badge was pitched as the privacy-friendly alternative: post the seal, not the whole certificate.
The rule covered anyone doing business or practicing a profession with an online presence. BusinessWorld and GMA News list online sellers, service providers, freelancers, professionals, bloggers, vloggers, livestreamers, influencers and other content creators. The badge had to appear where customers would see it: a website, an online shop, an e-marketplace profile, a mobile app or a business social media page, clear and unaltered.
Getting one was free, though taxpayers whose certificate lacked a QR code had to update their registration and pay a 30-peso (about $0.50) documentary stamp tax, according to the BIR circular as summarized by Grant Thornton and Philstar.
How the deadline moved, then vanished
RMC 38-2026 said the badge should be displayed immediately. In practice the BIR kept adjusting the timetable.
- 29 Apr 2026: RMC 38-2026 creates the BIR Registration Seal Badge for online businesses.
- Jun 2026: RMC 64-2026 adds guidance letting existing registrants with no changes to their details generate the badge online through ORUS, the BIR’s Online Registration and Update System.
- Early Oct 2026: RMC 99-2026 sets October 31, 2026 as the display deadline and says no penalties arise solely from not displaying the badge before then.
- 14 Oct 2026: The BIR reports more than 52,700 certificates of registration with seal badges issued.
- 22 Oct 2026: Mendoza says the bureau is coordinating with the National Privacy Commission on safeguards.
- 26 Oct 2026: RMC 113-2026 suspends the deadline and mandatory posting until further notice.
- 31 Oct 2026: The former deadline, now no longer enforced.
Why did the BIR suspend it?
Mendoza gave three reasons in one sentence. “We have heard the concerns of online sellers, content creators, and other taxpayers regarding data privacy, technical issues, and the scope of the BIR Registration Seal Badge requirement,” he said in a statement reported by BusinessWorld.
The privacy complaint was specific. A scan of the badge opens the BIR verification portal, and for an individual seller that page shows their name. When BusinessWorld scanned an influencer’s badge on October 26, the portal displayed the taxpayer’s full registered name and a partly masked TIN, alongside confirmation that the certificate was valid. A Manila Times column by Noemi Lardizabal-Dado, published the day before, described the same result: a company’s badge shows the company name, but a sole proprietor’s shows the owner’s own name, middle name included.
For a home-based seller working under a shop name, that is the part they had kept off the internet.
Mendoza acknowledged the gap between a shopfront and a social media page. “We recognize that protecting personal information online presents different and more complex challenges than displaying a COR at a physical business establishment,” he said.
Political pressure built in the final week. Senator Bam Aquino urged the BIR to temporarily suspend the requirement before the deadline, and Senator Pia Cayetano, who handles the National Privacy Commission’s budget in the Senate, raised the matter with the commission, Gadget Pilipinas reported.
What is suspended and what still applies
The circular is narrow. It switches off one obligation and leaves the rest of the tax system for online businesses where it was.
| Rule | Status after October 26, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Posting the seal badge online | Suspended until further notice; optional |
| October 31, 2026 display deadline | Suspended |
| Penalties solely for not displaying the badge | None during the suspension |
| Registering with the BIR (RR 15-2024) | Still required |
| Issuing invoices (RR 7-2024) | Still required |
| Filing returns, paying tax, keeping records | Still required |
| 1% withholding by e-marketplaces on half of gross remittances (RR 16-2023) | Unchanged |
Source: BIR RMC 113-2026 as reported by BusinessWorld and Taxumo, October 26, 2026; RR 15-2024 and RR 16-2023 as reported by Manila Bulletin, September 9, 2024, and Daily Tribune, July 19, 2024.
Registration is the big one. Under RR 15-2024, issued in 2024, all online businesses, regardless of size, must register with the BIR in the same way as physical ones, and operators of digital platforms, including e-marketplaces, are expected to make sure their sellers are registered. The same regulation allows the BIR to order closure or takedown of businesses that break the rules, online or not.
Invoicing changed in April 2024 under RR 7-2024, which implemented the Ease of Paying Taxes (EOPT) Act. The invoice became the main document for sales of both goods and services, replacing the old official receipt.
On payments, RR 16-2023 requires e-marketplace operators to withhold 1% on half of the gross amount they remit to sellers. E-marketplaces began applying it on July 15, 2024, after the BIR ruled out further extensions.
Taxumo, a tax filing service, notes that RMC 113-2026 does not expressly stop the BIR issuing badges either. Sellers who want one can still apply.
This article is for information only and is not tax or legal advice. The BIR’s own circulars and Revenue District Offices are the authoritative source on what applies to a particular taxpayer.
Where the National Privacy Commission comes in
The National Privacy Commission (NPC) enforces the Data Privacy Act of 2012, the Philippine law on how personal data is collected and shared, including by government agencies. Under that law, processing of personal data has to be proportionate to its purpose.
The BIR says it will now work with the commission. “We will work with the National Privacy Commission and consult affected taxpayers and stakeholders, consistent with the intent of the Ease of Paying Taxes Act to simplify compliance for all taxpayers,” Mendoza said.
As of October 25, the NPC had not issued a public statement on the badge, according to The Manila Times. Mendoza had said on October 22 that the bureau was looking at safeguards, which could include changing what the verification page shows.
The trade-off nobody has solved yet
The badge was meant to help buyers tell registered sellers from unregistered ones. That only works if the scan reveals something a buyer can check.
Lardizabal-Dado’s column made the uncomfortable point plainly. The name that worries sellers is also the detail that lets a buyer catch a fake. A screenshot of someone else’s badge still opens a genuine BIR page, so a buyer who does not compare the name on the portal with the seller in front of them learns nothing. Strip the name out, and copied badges become harder to spot. The same column noted that the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), a government agency, has warned the public about QR code phishing.
Seller advocates frame it the other way. Ronald Gustilo, national campaigner for the advocacy group Digital Pinoys, told BusinessWorld the bureau should have built a system that verifies online entrepreneurs “without unnecessarily compromising their privacy and security” before making display mandatory.
Raymond “Mon” Abrea, founding chairman of the Asian Consulting Group, welcomed the pause but questioned its timing. “Frequent regulatory changes undermine taxpayer confidence, particularly among micro, small and medium enterprises, online sellers, and content creators,” he told BusinessWorld.
There is a cost on the bureau’s side too. The badge was one of the ways the BIR hoped buyers and platforms would tell registered sellers from unregistered ones. For now, that check depends on sellers choosing to post it.
What happens next
Watch for: A new BIR circular lifting or rewriting the suspension, which would set a fresh deadline; any NPC advisory on what the verification page may show; and changes to verify.bir.gov.ph, such as masking individual names.
Any new rule will come as another RMC, posted on the BIR website and usually reported the same day by Philippine business outlets. The detail worth reading first is what a scan reveals, since that is the question the suspension was about.
Until then, a seller’s badge, or the lack of one, says less than it did a week ago. The registration behind it is what the BIR still checks.
