Press release

Announcement: Implementation of Invoice Requirement in Compliance with the Ease of Paying Taxes (EOPT) Act

Republic Act No. 11976, otherwise known as the Ease of Paying Taxes (EOPT) Act, was signed into law on 7 January 2024 and became effective on 22 January 2024. In accordance with its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRRs) effective 27 April 2024, the invoice shall replace official receipts as the primary document evidencing the sale of goods and/or services in the ordinary course of trade or business.

Moreover, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) allowed taxpayers with duly registered Computerized Accounting System (CAS) to reconfigure their systems on or before 30 June 2024 to comply with the invoicing requirements.

This new regulation is applicable to Sun Life and all its businesses in the country, including:

• Sun Life of Canada (Philippines), Inc.
• Sun Life Grepa Financial, Inc.
• Sun Life Financial Plans, Inc.
• Sun Life Asset Management Company, Inc.
• Sun Life Investment Management and Trust Corporation

FOR CLIENTS:

Please be advised that Sun Life will continue to issue duly registered official receipts while we reconfigure our systems to comply with the EOPT regulations. Please expect to receive a duly registered BIR invoice after we have reconfigured our systems and secured the necessary permits.

We are committed to ensuring that this will be a seamless transition for our policyholders. For any questions or concerns you may have on how we are operationalizing EOPT, please send your feedback to PHILEOPT.query@sunlife.com. This will help us refine our processes while implementation is ongoing and evolving.

Thank you for your patience and support!

FOR VENDORS:

Effective 27 April 2024, the invoice shall be the primary document evidencing the sale of goods and/or services in the ordinary course of trade or business. This could be a Sales Invoice, Commercial Invoice, Cash Invoice, Charge/Credit Invoice, Service Invoice, or Miscellaneous Invoice.

In compliance with this, all vendors/suppliers/contractors should submit duly BIR-registered invoice dated 27 April 2024 onwards for their billings to Sun Life.

For transactions already billed prior to April 27 but paid afterwards, the following documents should be presented upon collection of payment:

1. For goods transactions: Collection receipt or equivalent document
2. For service transactions: Any BIR-registered document containing “Invoice” as header or “Official Receipt” converted into an Invoice

The vendors/suppliers/contractors can utilize their unused manual official receipts as invoice until December 31, 2024 provided that:

1. The word "Official Receipt" on the face of the receipt shall be stricken through; and
2. The word “Invoice” shall be stamped on the face of the receipt. 

The invoice or the official receipt, which has been manually stricken through, should indicate the following details:

1. Name of vendor/supplier/contractor
2. Tax Identification Number (TIN) of vendor/supplier/contractor
3. Date of transaction
4. Registered name of buyer: [NAME OF SUN LIFE ENTITY]
5. Tax Identification Number (TIN) OF SUN LIFE ENTITY
6. Address of SUN LIFE ENTITY
7. Amount of transaction
8. VAT amount, for VAT-registered counterparty
9. Particulars/Description of the transaction
10. Valid Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) authority-to-print number for manual invoice or BIR Permit-to-Use Number/Acknowledgment Certificate Control Number for Invoice generated from computerized accounting system (usually seen at the lower left portion of the invoice).

Please refer to Appendix A for the details (i.e., name, TIN, address) of each Sun Life entity.

As proof of receipt of payment from Sun Life, vendors/suppliers/contractors shall issue supplementary documents [1] such as official receipt [2], acknowledgment or cash receipt, collection receipt, or any similar document (to the extent applicable). 

Please expect more information soon.

In the meantime, we welcome any questions or concerns you may have on how we are operationalizing EOPT.

This will help us refine our processes while implementation is ongoing and evolving. Please send your feedback to PHIL-EOPT.query@sunlife.com.  We are committed to addressing common challenges over the coming weeks.

Thank you for your patience and support.

REMINDERS:

[1] The supplementary documents must include the phrase “THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT VALID FOR CLAIM OF INPUT TAX”, in bold letters, and should be conspicuously printed at the face of the document.

[2] Unless official receipt was repurposed as Invoice.

APPENDIX A: