Source and Citation Policy

Authority comes first

TaxCode.ph aims to make material tax-law claims verifiable. The controlling legal text, applicable issuance, tax period and official source should be identifiable from the article itself.

Primary sources include the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 as amended, other tax-related legislation, valid implementing regulations, applicable BIR revenue issuances, relevant decisions of the Philippine Supreme Court, and official forms and procedural instructions.

How we classify official material

We identify statutes, Revenue Regulations (RRs), Revenue Memorandum Circulars (RMCs), Revenue Memorandum Orders (RMOs), administrative rulings, forms, notices and advisories by their actual type. Their legal effect is not assumed to be identical.

A circular, opinion, draft measure, proposed bill or media report must not be described as a new law merely because it discusses a legal requirement. Whenever relevant, we distinguish official guidance about an existing rule from a substantive amendment.

Where readers can verify

Useful official starting points include the BIR, Official Gazette, and Supreme Court E-Library. We try to link directly to the controlling document or provision, not just an agency homepage.

Third-party reproductions or secondary commentaries may aid research but are labeled as such when used; where a genuine source conflict exists, we do not silently choose the most convenient interpretation.

Citation details and dates

Citations should provide the instrument or decision title, number, relevant section or paragraph, official issuing body, issue date and effective date where available. For case law, cite the case name, G.R. number, decision date and relevant holding.

Where tax rates, penalties, forms, cutoffs, thresholds or deadlines change over time, specify the relevant taxable year or transaction date and verify transition provisions. An article’s WordPress modified date is not proof of legal verification.

Corrections, link failures and unsupported claims

If a primary document cannot be retrieved, the unsupported new claim should be withheld or clearly identified as unverified until the original is checked. Broken official URLs should be repaired or supplemented with an appropriate official archive without inventing an authority.

Readers can send the page URL, the passage at issue and an official source through Contact TaxCode.ph. See Corrections & Updates and our Editorial Policy.