BIR to pilot use of smart TIN cards

Starting next year, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) will do away with tax identification number or TIN cards made of cardboard and roll out IDs printed on smart cards, according to Revenue Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares.

The BIR chief disclosed the plan during last Wednesday’s general membership meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, adding that the pilot testing of TIN IDs made of smart cards would start in August.

A smart card is defined as a “plastic card with embedded microprocessor chip, electronic memory, and a battery,” which is being used to authenticate, manage and store information.

Some of these cards, which have the same size as a credit card, may be swiped through a magnetic reader.

Initially, new taxpayers will be issued the smart cards, after which all other registered taxpayers have to switch to the new card and dispose their old IDs by January next year, Henares said.

“This initiative has been planned for a long time… It will have a magnetic card and a smart chip to allow it flexibility so that we can use it for other things” in the future, she told reporters, citing that the new ID may also eventually be used to track value-added tax or VAT receipts.

Henares pointed out that some taxpayers had been complaining that the existing ID could be “easily faked,” while a smart card was seen to be more secure.

The BIR chief said the BIR would roll out the new TIN card even as pending legislation for a national ID system languishes in Congress.

Henares said the BIR was working on the system for the new TIN ID as part of initiatives to update taxpayer registration.