HOW TO REGISTER AS A FREELANCER TAXPAYER

Hello fellow freelancers! This is a part of my post of my on-going tax matters blogathon. In this post I will teach you how to register as self-employed freelancer. Please feel free to ask questions.

If you wish to register as a Self-Employed there are only four choices; single proprietorship, estates, trust and professional. The first three are all business related. You do not have a choice but to register as a professional. To be fair, celebrities, dancers, writers and directors register as professional too — professional with no license.

When I registered as a Self-Employed Professional my RDO (Regional District Office) asked me the following requirements;

1. Fill up the form 0605 (3 copies: Payment of Registration: 500php)
2. Fill up the form 1901 (2 copies: Registration Form) The officer of the day of your RDO will help you fill up this form.
3. Xerox copy of your NSO Birth Certificate
4. Xerox copy of Proof of Address (Any billing statement under your name; internet, electricity etc.)
5. Xerox copy of ID with name, birthdate, and signature (example: passport)
6. Marriage Contract and NSO Birth Certificate of Dependents (Children) only if applicable
7. Any proof of your income (email of your fee, fee certificate, payslip etc.)

I’ve read in some blogs that some freelancers were asked to get a Business Permit/Mayor’s Permit. I’m lucky my RDO did not ask me. You should explain to the officer in charge that you’re not registering for a business but as a professional. If you tell this, they might ask for a PTR (Professional Tax Receipt), but if your freelance does not require license, we can’t have this. Instead they’ll ask for an OTR (Occupational Tax Receipt). You can get this from your Municipal hall. I did the research for you. I went to my municipal hall to inquire, and found out that this OTR is almost similar to a Mayor’s permit. To get this, you’ll need an NBI Clearance and a Health Card (to get a health card you’ll need a medical certificate). You need to pay 300php for the OTR. This is my municipal hall’s case (Caloocan City-South), yours might be a different case. You’ll do this if your RDO asked you, if not then rejoice! Try to contest and give my situation as an example, they did not require me to get this OTR.

After submitting all the requirements, they gave me a TIN number. I paid the 500php registration fee and the 15php documentary stamp fee for your COR (Certificate of Registration). They asked me to come back again the next day for the seminar (this is required for you to get your COR).

Also, if you want to have a TIN ID, please ask your officer about it, you’ll just fill up a form and that’s it. You can get it after a few days or weeks. If you’re lucky, some RDOs will mail it at your home address.

The seminar was 3 hours long, gah! Good thing they offered snacks! The seminar was enlightening, but too long. Too much information I don’t need to know. Most of the new taxpayers in the seminar I attended were business owners. They asked too many questions about business. I felt so out-of-place. I hope BIR would have different seminars for business owners and professionals. If you have questions I suggest just ask the officer in charge of your RDO, so as not to waste the time of the other people in the seminar.

After the seminar I went back to the BIR office and waited for my COR. In my COR, it indicates that I need to buy the following: Books of Accounts (2 Columnar Book, 1 Ledger Book and 1 Journal Book) and also Authority to Print Invoices and Receipts (Form 1906). I asked the officer in charge, if I really need this and she said that although we will not be necessarily using this, We still have to dhave it as a compliance to the protocol. I recommend you to buy at the book store it will cause you 21.00php for one book. The store outside BIR sells it for 61.00php wow! They will stamp these booklets.

Regarding the receipts you will need to fill out the form 1906. This time you will need a printer company that will be authorized to the printing for you. You can also ask your RDO for you.They ask me to pay 100php per booklet. The minimum number of booklets that you can purchase is ten, so I need to pay 1000php in total. I need to wait two weeks from now as of this writing. I will update this once I have my receipts already.

After accomplishing this you are good to go! Registration is just the first process. Many freelancers don’t file and pay their tax dues after registering, please let’s file and pay the right tax.

Pros of Registering, Filing and Paying the Right Tax
1. This is your obligation. This is not an optional task.
2. You will abide by the law.
3. You will avoid penalties. Penalties under tax evasion includes imprisonment.
4. An ITR is a very helpful document. An ITR is required to acquire visa, get loans and apply for credit cards, etc.
5. If your agent withholds a percentage of your fee for your tax, it will be credited under you. You will know where the money goes.
6. You can claim that you registered, filed and paid your taxes well. You will have all the rights to bash and degrade those corrupt politicians.

*The author is working as an online home-based English tutor. She is registered a self-employed professional. Information shared here were based on author’s research and personal experience as a freelance taxpayer. Visit your nearest RDO for other concerns.