How to Register Sari-Sari Store Business in the Philippines

In order to legalize their business and be covered by benefits from the Philippine government for micro, small and medium enterprises, the Department of Trade and Industry has urged micro businesses, particularly operators of tiangge and sari-sari stores to register with the Philippine Business Registry.

“All kinds of businesses, whether large or small scale, should register… they can avail of government services and they can use their registered business name in marketing their business,” said DTI Undersecretary for Consumer Welfare and Business Regulation Group Zenaida Cuison-Maglaya.

Tiangges and sari-sari stores are classified under the micro-enterprises. Micro-enterprises are defined as any business activity or enterprise engaged in industry, agribusiness, or services, whether single proprietorship, cooperative, partnership or corporation whose total assets amount to P3 million or less and employs one to nine persons.

Tiangges and sari-sari stores are considered informally as part of the “underground economy” due to its small business size and are usually not registered with appropriate government agencies.

A common concern among small sari-sari store owners is that they may need to spend large amount of money and spend days to work on paper work and securing documents. However, DTI has made it easier for entrepreneurs to register their businesses through the PBR. A transaction will only take 15-30 minutes and will involve only a two-page PBR application form.

A micro-business, Maglaya said, pays only for the business name registration, in which the amount depends on the preferred business name scope.

Entrepreneur who wish to confine the name of business within a barangay will pay P200 for registration; within a city/municipality, P500; within a region, P1,000; and national, P2,000.

Maglaya reiterated that micro-businesses will only pay for the BN Certificate from DTI, and there is no additional charge for application for the Taxpayer Identification Number from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), and Employer Registration Numbers (ERNs) from the Social Security System (SSS), Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG), and PhilHealth.

SOLE PROPRIETORS

Walk-in application at the DTI Office (List of DTI Offices)

  1. The applicant fills out the PBR application form and submits to DTI teller for encoding.
  2. Applicant’s Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) is required to proceed since PBR number (PBN) is based on the TIN. If there’s an existing TIN, PBR will validate against records. If there’s no TIN yet, PBR will generate for the client
  3. The applicant pays for the BN registration at the Cashier, and presents the receipt to the teller.
  4. The teller submits application to SSS, Philhealth, and Pag-IBIG, then prints and hands over Business Name Certificate, copy of BN Application form, and Official receipt.
  5. The teller provides the employer’s registration numbers (ERNs) from SSS, Philhealth, and Pag-IBIG through a filled out application form. An e-mail notification indicating the ERNs issued by these agencies can also be retrieved by an applicant in his/ her email account.
  6. Applicant may proceed to the said agencies to get certificate or employer’s ID. Just present the PBR-generated ERNs.

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