AAC Tax Code.

(A) Rate and Base of Tax. — There shall be levied, assessed and collected, a value-added tax equivalent to twelve percent (12%) of the gross sales derived from the sale or exchange of services, including the use or lease of properties.

The phrase ‘sale or exchange of services’ means the performance of all kinds of services in the Philippines for others for a fee, remuneration or consideration, including those performed or rendered by construction and service contractors; stock, real estate, commercial, customs and immigration brokers; lessors of property, whether personal or real; warehousing services; lessors or distributors of cinematographic films; persons engaged in milling, processing, manufacturing or repacking goods for others; proprietors, operators or keepers of hotels, motels, resthouses, pension houses, inns, resorts; proprietors or operators of restaurants, refreshment parlors, cafes and other eating places, including clubs and caterers; dealers in securities; lending investors; transportation contractors on their transport of goods or cargoes, including persons who transport goods or cargoes for hire and other domestic common carriers by land relative to their transport of goods or cargoes; common carriers by air and sea relative to their transport of passengers, goods or cargoes from one place in the Philippines to another place in the Philippines; sales of electricity by generation companies, transmission by any entity,¹³⁷ and distribution companies, including electric cooperatives;¹³⁸ services of franchise grantees of electric utilities, telephone and telegraph, radio and television broadcasting and all other franchise grantees except those under Section 119 of this Code and non-life insurance companies (except their crop insurances) including surety, fidelity, indemnity and bonding companies; and similar services regardless of whether or not the performance thereof calls for the exercise or use of the physical or mental faculties. The phrase ‘sale or exchange of services’ shall likewise include:

(1) The lease or the use of or the right or privilege to use any copyright, patent, design or model, plan, secret formula or process, goodwill, trademark, trade brand or other like property or right;

(2) The lease or the use of, or the right to use of any industrial, commercial or scientific equipment;

(3) The supply of scientific, technical, industrial or commercial knowledge or information;

(4) The supply of any assistance that is ancillary and subsidiary to and is furnished as a means of enabling the application or enjoyment of any such property, or right as is mentioned in subparagraph (2) or any such knowledge or information as is mentioned in subparagraph (3);

(5) The supply of services by a nonresident person or his employee in connection with the use of property or rights belonging to, or the installation or operation of any brand, machinery or other apparatus purchased from such nonresident person;

(6) The supply of technical advice, assistance or services rendered in connection with technical management or administration of any scientific, industrial or commercial undertaking, venture, project or scheme;

(7) The lease of motion picture films, films, tapes and discs; and

(8) The lease or the use of or the right to use radio, television, satellite transmission and cable television time.

Lease of properties shall be subject to the tax herein imposed irrespective of the place where the contract of lease or licensing agreement was executed if the property is leased or used in the Philippines.

For purposes of this Section, the term ‘gross sales’ means the total amount of money or its equivalent representing the contract price, compensation, service fee, rental or royalty, including the amount charged for materials supplied with the services during the taxable quarter for the services performed for another person, which the purchaser pays or is obligated to pay to the seller in consideration of the sale, barter, or exchange of services that has already been rendered by the seller and the use or lease of properties that have already been supplied by the seller, excluding value-added tax and those amounts earmarked for payment to third (3rd) party or received as reimbursement for payment on behalf of another which do not redound to the benefit of the seller as provided under relevant laws, rules or regulations: Provided, That for long-term contracts for a period of one (1) year or more, the invoice shall be issued on the month in which the service, or use or lease of properties is rendered or supplied.

(B) Transactions Subject to Zero Percent (0%) Rate. — The following services performed in the Philippines by VAT-registered persons shall be subject to zero percent (0%) rate:

(1) Processing, manufacturing or repacking goods for other persons doing business outside the Philippines which goods are subsequently exported, where the services are paid for in acceptable foreign currency and accounted for in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP);

(2) Services other than those mentioned in the preceding paragraph rendered to a person engaged in business conducted outside the Philippines or to a nonresident person not engaged in business who is outside the Philippines when the services are performed, the consideration for which is paid for in acceptable foreign currency and accounted for in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP);

(3) Services rendered to persons or entities whose exemption under special laws or international agreements to which the Philippines is a signatory effectively subjects the supply of such services to zero percent (0%) rate;

(4) Services rendered to persons engaged in international shipping or international air transport operations, including leases of property for use thereof: Provided, That these services shall be exclusive for international shipping or air transport operations; ¹³⁹

(5) Services performed for an export-oriented enterprise whose export sales is at least seventy percent (70%) of the total annual production of the preceding taxable year: Provided, That such services are directly attributable to the export activity of the export-oriented enterprise: Provided, further, That the Export Marketing Bureau of the DTI shall determine compliance with the aforementioned threshold. Any export-oriented enterprise that fails to meet the threshold shall be disqualified from availing of VAT zero-rating in the immediately succeeding year: Provided, finally, That input tax otherwise due on VAT zero-rated local purchases attributable to VAT-exempt sales shall be paid and deductible from the gross income of the taxpayer. For this purpose, ‘directly attributable’ shall follow the same definition under Section 106 of this Code.

(6) Transport of passengers and cargo by domestic¹⁴⁰ air or sea vessels from the Philippines to a foreign country; and

(7) Sale of power or fuel generated through renewable sources of energy such as, but not limited to, biomass, solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, ocean energy, and other emerging energy sources using technologies such as fuel cells and hydrogen fuels.

(8) Sales subject to zero percent (0%) VAT under special laws.

The Department of Finance (DOF) shall establish a VAT refund center in the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and in the Bureau of Customs (BOC) that will handle the electronic processing and granting of cash refunds of creditable input tax.

(C) Sales Allowances and Sales Discounts. — The value of services rendered for which allowances were granted by a VAT-registered person may be deducted from the gross sales for the quarter in which a refund is made or a credit memorandum or refund is issued. Sales discount granted and indicated in the invoice at the time of sale and the grant of which does not depend upon the happening of a future event may be excluded from the gross sales within the same quarter it was given.