BIR Compromise Penalty Table for Registration, Receipts, and Invoicing Violations
The BIR settles most registration, receipt-issuance, and invoicing violations found during a tax mapping visit through a compromise penalty, not an automatic fine — and the peso amounts are fixed by a published BIR schedule, not left to the revenue officer’s discretion. Registration failures run ₱2,000 to ₱20,000 by city/municipality classification; receipt and invoice violations run ₱5,000 to ₱50,000 depending on the offense and whether it’s a first or second occurrence.
Check Your Receipts and Registration Before They Check You — FREE →This is the companion table to BIR Tax Mapping and Oplan Kandado, which covers what happens during the visit itself, and to RMO No. 7-2015 Compromise Penalties Explained, which covers the separate schedule for late-filed returns and unpaid tax. For the general registration process, see How to Register a New Business with the BIR.
What does the BIR charge for failure to register? #
A missing branch registration, an undisplayed Certificate of Registration, or an unpaid annual registration fee each carry their own fixed compromise amount, published in the BIR’s Schedule of Compromise Penalties for Registration, Invoicing, Bookkeeping and Compliance Requirements under NIRC Sections 236, 258, and 275. The registration-failure amount scales by where the business sits, using the Local Government Code’s income-based city/municipality classification.
| Violation | Legal basis | Compromise |
|---|---|---|
| Failure to register a branch/other line of business/facility — city | Sec. 236/258 | ₱20,000 |
| — 1st class municipality | Sec. 236/258 | ₱10,000 |
| — 2nd class municipality | Sec. 236/258 | ₱5,000 |
| — 3rd class municipality | Sec. 236/258 | ₱2,000 |
| Failure to pay & display Annual Registration Fee (BIR Form 0605) | Sec. 236/275 | ₱1,000 |
| No Certificate of Registration displayed | Sec. 236/275 | ₱1,000 |
| Failure to display “Ask for BIR Receipt” poster | Sec. 236/275 | ₱1,000 |
| Failure to attach CRM/POS/CAS sticker or decal | Sec. 236/275 | ₱1,000 |
Excise-tax businesses (distilling, rectifying, repacking, compounding, or manufacturing an article subject to excise tax) that fail to pay their annual registration fee face a steeper, separately tiered amount: ₱30,000 in a city, ₱20,000 in a 1st class municipality, ₱15,000 in a 2nd class municipality, or ₱10,000 in a 3rd class municipality.
The BIR’s schedule notes that the city/municipality registration amounts are “inclusive of all other violations” found in the same visit for that establishment — a revenue officer isn’t meant to stack a separate compromise for every minor finding once the base registration compromise is assessed.
What does the BIR charge for not issuing a receipt or invoice? #
Receipt and invoice violations under NIRC Section 264 are compromised on a two-tier scale — a lower amount for a first offense, roughly double for a second — and several of the more serious variants are excluded from compromise altogether. These are the violations most commonly found during an unannounced tax mapping visit, since they turn on what the officer observes the business actually doing at the counter.
| Violation | 1st offense | 2nd offense |
|---|---|---|
| Failure to issue a receipt or sales/commercial invoice | ₱10,000 | ₱20,000 |
| Refusal to issue a receipt or sales/commercial invoice | ₱25,000 | ₱50,000 |
| Receipt/invoice missing the correct transaction amount | ₱20,000 | ₱50,000 |
| Receipt/invoice not truly reflecting required information | ₱5,000 | ₱10,000 |
| Duplicate copy blank; original detached and unaccounted for | ₱20,000 | ₱50,000 |
| Use of unregistered receipts or invoices | ₱20,000 | ₱50,000 |
| Use of an unregistered cash register machine in lieu of receipts | ₱25,000/unit | ₱50,000/unit |
| Printing receipts/invoices without BIR authority | ₱25,000 | ₱50,000 |
| Receipts/invoices missing required details (sequence, TIN, address, etc.) | ₱20,000 | ₱50,000 |
| Printer’s failure to submit the required quarterly report | ₱5,000 | ₱10,000 |
Two violations are explicitly carved out of the compromise table entirely: possession or use of multiple or double receipts/invoices, and cases where the amount on the taxpayer’s own copy is understated compared to the purchaser’s copy. Both are treated as evidence pointing toward fraud rather than ordinary non-compliance, so they proceed straight to criminal referral rather than a negotiated settlement. Subsequent violations beyond the second offense are likewise excluded from compromise across this table — repetition converts a compliance lapse into something the schedule no longer treats as a good-faith mistake.
Worked example: A revenue officer conducting tax mapping at a Quezon City eatery finds the cashier not issuing receipts for cash sales. Since Quezon City is a city (not a municipality), this is a first-offense failure to issue receipts under Section 264 — a ₱10,000 compromise, payable on BIR Form 0605, separate from any registration finding at the same visit. If the same violation recurs on a later visit, the second-offense amount of ₱20,000 applies, and any further repetition is no longer eligible for compromise at all.
How are bookkeeping and reporting compliance violations compromised? #
Failing to submit the RELIEF SLSP, an alphalist, or another required information return is compromised per document under NIRC Section 250 — ₱1,000 for each missed or inaccurate submission, capped at ₱25,000 per calendar year for that category. This is the same cap structure covered in more detail in Common RELIEF SLSP Upload Errors and Common QAP DAT File Errors.
| Violation | Compromise |
|---|---|
| Failure to make, file, or submit the complete quarterly SLSP | ₱1,000 per failure, max ₱25,000/calendar year |
| Failure to make, file, or submit other information returns, schedules, reports, sworn statements, or certifications | ₱1,000 per document, max ₱25,000/calendar year |
| Failure to supply correct and accurate information in those returns/documents | ₱1,000 per error, max ₱25,000/calendar year |
The cap has a hard exception: missing the complete SLSP at least twice in a taxable year, or submitting it in a format other than what’s prescribed, is treated as willful failure tantamount to fraud and is not eligible for compromise at all — the BIR proceeds against it as a criminal referral instead of a ₱1,000-per-instance settlement.
How does RR No. 15-2024 change the registration penalty for online sellers and digital platforms? #
RR No. 15-2024, issued August 15, 2024, mandates BIR registration for brick-and-mortar stores, e-commerce and online sellers, digital platform and marketplace operators, content creators, freelancers, and other digital-service providers — and it prescribes its own, separate compromise table for registration violations by these covered persons, keyed to taxpayer classification rather than city or municipality.
| Violation | Tax Code basis | Compromise |
|---|---|---|
| Late registration (voluntary) | Sec. 275 | ₱1,000 |
| Failure to register a store/business name | Sec. 275 | ₱1,000 per name |
| Failure to post COR/eCOR (physical or digital) | Sec. 275 | ₱1,000 per violation/name |
| Lessor or digital platform allowing an unregistered seller to operate | Sec. 253 in relation to Sec. 258 | ₱20,000 per branch/store/establishment |
| Failure to obey a Closure/Take Down Order | Sec. 258 | ₱20,000 |
| Failure to register head office or branch — discovered (tax mapping, inspection, mission order, BIR notice, or third-party report) | Sec. 258 | Medium/large taxpayer: ₱20,000 · Small taxpayer: ₱15,000 · Micro taxpayer: ₱5,000 · Excise-tax business: ₱50,000 |
The taxpayer-classification thresholds — micro, small, medium, and large — come from RR No. 8-2024: micro is gross sales under ₱3 million, small is ₱3 million to under ₱20 million, medium is ₱20 million to under ₱1 billion, and large is ₱1 billion and above. A taxpayer who registers voluntarily and late pays a flat ₱1,000 regardless of size; a taxpayer whose non-registration is instead discovered by the BIR pays the classification-based amount — a meaningfully larger gap for a small online seller (₱15,000) than for a large one (₱20,000), and a much larger one for a business subject to excise tax (₱50,000).
Worked example: An online reseller with ₱10 million in annual gross sales — a small taxpayer under RR No. 8-2024 — is reported to the BIR by a marketplace platform for operating without a Certificate of Registration. Because this is a discovered failure to register rather than a voluntary late registration, the RR No. 15-2024 compromise is ₱15,000, not the flat ₱1,000 voluntary-registration rate and not RMO No. 7-2015’s older city/municipality-based figure.
Frequently asked questions #
How much is the BIR compromise penalty for failing to register a branch? #
Under RMO No. 7-2015’s schedule, failure to register a branch or other line of business runs from ₱2,000 to ₱20,000, based on whether the establishment sits in a city (₱20,000), a 1st class municipality (₱10,000), a 2nd class municipality (₱5,000), or a 3rd class municipality (₱2,000).
How much is the compromise penalty for not issuing a receipt or invoice? #
Failure to issue a receipt or sales/commercial invoice is ₱10,000 for a first offense and ₱20,000 for a second offense. Refusal to issue one is higher — ₱25,000 for a first offense and ₱50,000 for a second offense. Subsequent violations after the second are not eligible for compromise.
Can every registration or invoicing violation be settled by compromise? #
No. Possession or use of multiple or double receipts/invoices, and understating the transaction amount on the taxpayer’s copy versus the purchaser’s copy, are both explicitly not qualified for compromise under the BIR’s schedule — these are treated as fraud indicators, not ordinary non-compliance.
Does RR No. 15-2024 replace the RMO No. 7-2015 registration penalty? #
RR No. 15-2024 (issued August 15, 2024) adds a separate compromise table specifically for persons covered by its business-registration mandate — brick-and-mortar stores, online sellers, digital platform operators, content creators, and freelancers. It prices a discovered failure to register a head office or branch by taxpayer classification (micro, small, medium/large, or excise-tax business) rather than by city or municipality.
What is the compromise penalty for failing to submit the RELIEF SLSP on time? #
₱1,000 for each failure to file, make, or submit a complete quarterly Summary List of Sales and Purchases, capped at ₱25,000 per calendar year. Missing the SLSP at least twice in a taxable year, or submitting it in the wrong format, is treated as willful failure and is not eligible for compromise.
Summary #
Registration, receipt, and invoicing violations found during a BIR tax mapping visit each carry a fixed compromise amount — not a figure the revenue officer negotiates on the spot. Registration runs ₱2,000 to ₱20,000 by locality; receipts and invoices run ₱5,000 to ₱50,000 by offense count, with the most serious variants excluded from compromise entirely; and RR No. 15-2024 layers a newer, taxpayer-classified registration table on top for brick-and-mortar stores, online sellers, and digital platforms discovered operating unregistered. Keeping registration current and receipts properly issued the first time avoids all of it.