How to compute Percentage Tax in the Philippines

This article aims to guide businessmen and professionals in computing their percentage tax payable to the BIR. Your humble friend here is also subject to percentage tax. Accordingly, I’m also paying percentage tax every month aside from quarterly and annual income tax payables. Percentage tax, like Value Added Tax (VAT), is also considered as a business tax rather than an income tax. This means that whether you generate income or incur a loss, as long as you have sales or revenue, you must pay a percentage tax. This is because business taxes are taxes based on gross sales or receipts rather than based on net income (before income tax). Read more

How to register a corporation in the Philippines (SEC)

So you have already decided to register a corporation? If you’re not yet sure, then you might need to read our article about the advantages and disadvantages of forming a corporation over sole proprietorship and partnership. But if you have already finalized your decision and you believe it is best to incorporate your business, you need to follow the following basic steps in registering a corporation with the Philippines (SEC) Securities and Exchange Commission.

1. Verify and reserve your Corporate Name

If you already got the perfect name for your business to be incorporated, you need to verify it immediately and have it reserved before others take it. You can verify the availability of your proposed name and reserve it online at the SEC-iRegister website, a quick, affordable, and user friendly service that is available to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There, you need to register and have your username and password to be able to log in. Once logged in, you can verify your desired name if it’s still available. If it’s still available, you can pay the reservation pay and get a Name Verification Slip. The slip is submitted together with the other requirements. Read more

What are the advantages and disadvantages of forming a corporation?

The world’s largest companies are formed as corporations. Microsoft, Google and Yahoo are all corporations. These companies are worth billions of dollars and they are what you will always see and hear on a business or stock trading news. Unlike a sole proprietorship or a partnership, a corporation is a business that is recognized by law as a separate legal entity with its own powers, responsibilities, and obligations. The defining feature of a corporation is its legal independence from the people who create it. If a corporation becomes insolvent, its owners and shareholders will not be liable beyond their equity investments in the corporation – creditors cannot go after the stockholders’ personal assets to exhaust their debts. This attribute is called limited liability. A corporation sounds very promising, but before sole proprietors and partners decide to incorporate their businesses, we should first study the following advantages and disadvantages of a corporation. Read more

Definitions and sources of owner’s, partners’ and stockholders’ equity:

Ownership equity is the residual interest in the assets of the entity after deducting all its liabilities. In the accounting equation as presented in the balance sheet, equity equals assets minus liabilities. This means that ownership equity is composed of all the entity’s resources which are not obtained from debts. In other words, it consists of all the resources derived from owners’ contribution.

Equity differs depending on the structure of an entity. A sole proprietorship which is owned solely by a proprietor presents its equity as an owner’s equity. Accounting for owner’s equity in a single proprietorship is simple. Owner’s equity in this form is increased when the owner contributes capital or realizes net profit. It is then decreased when the owner draws capital or incurred a net loss. Read more