At some point you need to provide your TIN (taxpayer identification number) when entering a transaction: paying tax, applying for business permit, apply for bank account or even signing up for an account in a stock broker platform.
Assuming you’ve already had your TIN but you forgot this or lost the BIR form / paper you took note of this number, how do you retrieve this number without obviously going to the BIR office?
One of the easiest ways to do so is to visit Google and search for relevant keyword or directly go to bir.gov.ph website. However, if you cannot find the TIN retrieval function, then that’s because as of writing, there’s no such facility to help taxpayers who forgot or lost a copy of their TIN.
Despair not, however, as there are other ways to recover your BIR taxpayer identification number.
Before you think of applying for another TIN account, it is a criminal offense to possess multiple TIN and is punishable by law. So instead of filing for another TIN, follow the following the options below:
There are at least three different ways to retrieve and recover your lost or forgotten TIN.
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Call the BIR hotline.
Dial the Bureau of Internal Revenue trunklines 981 7000 and 929 7676. For callers outside of Metro Manila, add the area code 02 so it becomes 02 981-7000. For callers outside the Philippines, dial using the Philippine country code +63 2 981-7000. The line might be busy as you may be competing with other people trying to retrieve their lost TINs or asking other tax-related questions. Be straight to the point and polite to the answering party, and bear in mind that information you’ll share related to your inquiry is treated with confidentiality.
If you reach an interactive voice response system, select the corresponding number to Verify TIN. Before calling, prepare the following: complete name, date of birth, and registered address to verify your TIN.
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Visit your BIR Regional Office.
(Find BIR locations here). If your location is close to regional office of BIR, you can pay it a visit. Go to the customer service or taxpayers general services booth to make your inquiry. Before going there, bring a valid ID: government issued documents like passport, driver’s license, etc. You may be asked to submit an affidavit of loss for lost TIN Card and original TIN card for damaged card so having them handy helps a lot.
Likewise, it won’t hurt to bring supporting documents like marriage contract (for tax-related topics related to joint business or income tax of you and your spouse.
Once you’re in the office, you can get the BIR form 1905 if you need to update personal information (address, contact details, etc).
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Ask a friend.
Someone might know somebody who had experience in losing their TIN and figured out how they verified their accounts. -
Visit the BIR website.
This is the fourth option for a reason: There’s no existing TIN retrieval system in place. The demand for this service is high so we are hoping this can be implemented soon.
For a country with growing Internet penetration, providing government services online (just like verification of TIN for taxpayers) is a win-win situation for both the government and its citizens. It saves everyone time, and makes services more efficient, as manpower that would have been devoted to this task can augment shortage in other tax-related tasks.
After all, helping taxpayers facilitate their accounts is part of making it easier for them to settle tax obligations to the government. Soon as we learn this new system is in place, an update shall be made in this article.
