Do Notarial Fees Need Their Own BIR Registration? VAT Threshold Rules for Lawyer-Notaries

A lawyer who is also a notary public does not need a separate BIR registration for notarial services — notarizing documents is part of the practice of law, so notarial fees are professional income under the same Certificate of Registration that already covers that lawyer’s legal practice. Notarial fees and legal fees are added together, not tracked as two separate businesses, when testing against the ₱3,000,000 VAT threshold or deciding between the 8% income tax option and graduated rates with percentage tax.

Does a notary public need a separate BIR registration? #

No — a lawyer’s notarial commission does not create a second taxpayer, a second TIN, or a second Certificate of Registration. A notary public in the Philippines is, by rule, a lawyer in good standing who has been commissioned by an Executive Judge to perform notarial acts within a territorial jurisdiction. Notarization is an act performed in the course of, and incidental to, that same lawyer’s practice of law — it is not a distinct trade or a different profession requiring its own registration with the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

When that lawyer first registered as a self-employed professional using BIR Form 1901, the resulting Certificate of Registration (BIR Form 2303) already reflects the applicable line of business for legal services. Being commissioned as a notary later does not change that registered line of business or require filing a new BIR Form 1901 — it is the same practitioner, the same TIN, and the same registration, now also collecting notarial fees alongside legal fees.

Why doesn’t notarial practice need its own registration? #

BIR registration attaches to the taxpayer and to each physical place of business — not separately to each type of professional service that taxpayer happens to perform. Section 236(A) of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC), as amended, ties the registration requirement to the person and the location where they operate:

“Any person who maintains a head office, branch or facility shall register the head office and branch or facility with the Revenue District Officer having jurisdiction over the head office, branch or facility, respectively.” — Section 236(A), National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC), as amended

A lawyer-notary practicing out of the same office, and notarizing documents at that same office, has not opened a new “branch or facility” simply by accepting a notarial commission — there is no new physical place of business to register, and no new taxpayer to register under Section 236. If the lawyer instead opens a separate satellite office purely to offer notarial services, that physical location would need its own BIR Form 1905 branch registration for the reasons covered in How to Register a New BIR Branch — but that requirement flows from the new address, not from notarization being a different kind of professional service.

Do notarial fees count toward the ₱3,000,000 VAT threshold? #

Yes — notarial fees and legal fees are combined as one practitioner’s total gross receipts when testing against the ₱3,000,000 VAT registration threshold. Under Section 236(F) of the NIRC in relation to Section 109(CC), any person engaged in the practice of a profession must register as a VAT taxpayer once gross receipts in any 12-month period exceed ₱3,000,000. That test looks at the practitioner’s total professional gross receipts — legal fees, retainer fees, appearance fees, and notarial fees together — not at notarial income as a smaller, separately measured stream that could stay under the line indefinitely while legal fees alone crossed it. For the mechanics of this threshold in more detail, including how it is measured on a trailing 12-month basis and what changes once it’s crossed, see VAT Registration Threshold in the Philippines.

The same combined-receipts logic carries into whichever expanded withholding tax rate a paying client applies under RR No. 11-2018 when settling a professional fee — the 5%/10% individual-payee tiers described in BIR Form 2307 for Professional Fees turn on the payee’s total gross income for the year, not on whether a particular payment happened to be for legal work or for notarizing a document.

Does combining the two affect the 8% income tax election? #

Yes — the same combined figure is what disqualifies or qualifies a lawyer-notary for the 8% income tax rate option. A self-employed professional whose gross sales/receipts and other non-operating income do not exceed ₱3,000,000 for the year may elect the flat 8% rate under NIRC Section 24(A)(2)(b), as implemented by RMO No. 23-2018, in place of both the graduated income tax table and Section 116 percentage tax. Because notarial fees are professional income from the same practice, they are added to legal fees when checking that ₱3,000,000 ceiling — a practitioner cannot keep legal fees alone under the cap while notarial income pushes total receipts over it and still claim the 8% option applies only to the “legal fees business.”

If combined gross receipts exceed ₱3,000,000 mid-year, the practitioner loses the 8% option for the rest of that year under the same mid-year breach rules — VAT registration, graduated income tax, and percentage-tax catch-up — described in What Happens If You Exceed ₱3 Million Under the 8% Income Tax Option?. For the broader comparison between the 8% option and graduated rates, including when each produces a lower tax bill, see 8% Income Tax Rate vs Graduated Rates.

Worked example: a solo practitioner’s combined receipts #

Suppose a solo law practitioner earns ₱2,200,000 in legal fees (retainers, litigation, and consultation) and ₱150,000 in notarial fees over the same taxable year. Both are professional income from the same practice under the same BIR registration, so they are added together for VAT-threshold and 8%-election purposes:

Because the combined ₱2,350,000 stays below ₱3,000,000, this practitioner remains eligible for the 8% income tax option (if elected and otherwise qualified) and is not yet required to register for VAT. The relevant comparison is never “₱150,000 in notarial fees is too small to matter” — it is whether the combined ₱2,350,000 stays under the threshold. If the same practitioner’s legal fees alone were ₱2,900,000, the additional ₱150,000 in notarial fees would push total receipts to ₱3,050,000, crossing the line and triggering the mid-year breach consequences covered above — even though notarial fees were a small fraction of the total.

Do notarial fees still need a BIR receipt? #

Yes — a notarial fee is income like any other professional fee, and it must be receipted with a BIR-registered official receipt or invoice, separately from being logged in the notarial register. These two records serve entirely different purposes and neither substitutes for the other:

• The notarial register is a chronological log a notary public keeps under the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice (A.M. No. 02-8-13-SC), recording every instrument notarized, the parties, and identifying details. It exists to protect the integrity of notarized documents and is subject to inspection by the courts that commissioned the notary — it is a judicial recordkeeping requirement, not a tax document.
• The BIR official receipt or invoice is what the lawyer-notary’s Certificate of Registration authorizes them to issue for income received, under the general invoicing requirement in the NIRC that applies to every sale of service by a registered professional.

A notary cannot treat the notarial register as an informal substitute for BIR receipting simply because a fee was “just” a notarization rather than legal work billed on a formal invoice. Every notarial fee collected — even a small per-document signing fee — is gross income of the practice and should be reflected on a BIR-registered receipt the same way a litigation retainer or consultation fee would be.

What happens if notarial fees go unreceipted? #

Collecting notarial fees off-the-books, on the theory that the notarial register already documents the transaction, exposes the practitioner on two fronts. First, failing or refusing to issue a required receipt is penalized under Section 264(a) of the NIRC with a fine of not less than ₱1,000 but not more than ₱50,000 and imprisonment of not less than two years but not more than four years, separate from any income tax consequence. Second, unreceipted notarial income is still taxable gross income — if it surfaces later (through a BIR audit cross-referencing the notarial register itself, a client’s own documentation, or a third-party report), the practitioner faces deficiency income tax, surcharge, and interest on top of the invoicing penalty, and the unreported receipts can also distort whether the ₱3,000,000 VAT threshold was actually crossed in a given year.

Frequently asked questions #

Does a notary public need a separate BIR registration for notarial fees? #

No. A lawyer commissioned as a notary public notarizes documents as part of the practice of law, so notarial fees are professional income under the same BIR Certificate of Registration already covering that lawyer’s legal practice. There is no separate line of business, TIN, or Certificate of Registration for notarial services.

Do notarial fees count toward the ₱3,000,000 VAT threshold? #

Yes. Notarial fees and legal fees are both professional income of the same practitioner and are added together as total gross receipts when testing against the ₱3,000,000 VAT registration threshold under Section 236(F) of the NIRC in relation to Section 109(CC) — they are not tracked as two separate, smaller income streams.

Can a lawyer-notary still elect the 8% income tax rate? #

Yes, on the same terms as any other self-employed professional. The election looks at combined legal-and-notarial gross receipts for the year, not legal fees alone. If that combined figure exceeds ₱3,000,000, the practitioner is disqualified from the 8% option under NIRC Section 24(A)(2)(b) and RMO No. 23-2018, just as any other professional would be.

Is the notarial register a substitute for issuing a BIR receipt on notarial fees? #

No. The notarial register kept under the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice is a chronological court-supervised log of every document notarized — it exists to protect the integrity of notarized instruments, not to satisfy tax law. A lawyer-notary must still issue a BIR-registered official receipt or invoice for the notarial fee collected, separately from logging the transaction in the notarial register.

What happens if a lawyer-notary collects notarial fees without issuing a BIR receipt? #

Failing or refusing to issue a required receipt exposes the practitioner to the invoicing penalties under Section 264(a) of the NIRC — a fine of not less than ₱1,000 but not more than ₱50,000 and imprisonment of not less than two years but not more than four years — on top of the unreported income being assessed for deficiency income tax, surcharge, and interest once discovered.

Summary #

A notarial commission does not create a second BIR-registered business — it is an act within the same practice of law, covered by the same Certificate of Registration, TIN, and books of accounts as the lawyer’s other legal work. Notarial fees and legal fees are combined as one practitioner’s total gross professional receipts for the ₱3,000,000 VAT threshold and the 8% income tax election, and every notarial fee still needs a BIR-registered receipt regardless of the separate record kept in the notarial register. For the withholding side when clients pay this practitioner, see BIR Form 2307 for Professional Fees; for the VAT-threshold mechanics in full, see VAT Registration Threshold in the Philippines; and for choosing between tax regimes once total receipts are known, see 8% Income Tax Rate vs Graduated Rates.