THE Bureau of Internal Revenue Region 13 (BIR 13) is intensifying its tax mapping campaign in its areas of jurisdiction to ensure that establishments are using non-thermal paper in printing out records or receipts.
The non-paper requirement for receipts of establishments was the latest BIR mandate this year.
Thermal paper is unreliable for records such as receipts and invoices because the ink fades from the paper after a few weeks. For businesses, it is safer and better to use non-thermal paper, said lawyer Neri Yu, BIR 13 legal officer yesterday.
“As per BIR regulation, accounting records should be preserved for a minimum of 3 years,” Yu said. “Thermal paper can’t be used because the records fade. We need to use non-thermal paper to make businesses records last.”
He said that BIR 13 has been conducting tax mapping in the various zones under their region for the past two weeks.
“All establishments who applied for CRMs (cash register machines) or POS (point-of-sales machines) were revisited. The tax mapping will result in the confirmation of their compliance to the regulation,” he said.
He also cited the challenge of tax mapping the areas under their jurisdiction because of the lack of personnel.
He said they have only at least 170 examiners to cover the four districts under the region.
The BIR 13 covers the districts of Talisay, Mandaue, Cebu City north and Cebu City south.