Why do you ask for my TIN on signup?

For those who are not yet familiar, the TIN is our tax ID here in the Philippines. It stands for “Tax Identification Number”.

Every taxpayer in the Philippines gets assigned one and only one, permanent TIN for life. This applies both to natural persons and juridical persons. And it is the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) that maintains records of these TINs.

Even if you are a foreigner, when you buy a property here in the Philippines, you are required to register with BIR so that you’ll be issued a TIN. But many property buyers don’t even notice this registration happening anymore, especially those who are first-time buyers who purchase their properties from developers.

In usual cases, this is already part of the sales process of developers, that happens in the background. If you were not yet registered with the BIR, they would be required to register you. And if, upon checking with the BIR, you have already been issued your TIN before, then they would just have to use that existing TIN.

As a VAT-registered entity, among the things we are required to regularly report to the BIR, is the TIN of our “regular customers”. In its Revenue Regulation No. 16-2005, BIR defined regular customers to include those “who are engaged in business or exercise of profession and those with whom the taxpayer has transacted at least 6 transactions regardless of the amount per transaction either in the previous year or the current year.”

Our property management clients fall within this definition from BIR of “regular customers”. So, to avoid inconvenience down the road, we just make the effort to get this info as early as the signup process.