BIR Registration Seal Badge: Display It by October 31
In This Article:
- Who the badge rule covers
- How to get it through ORUS
- Where to display it correctly
Quick Answer: The BIR Registration Seal Badge is a QR-enabled image that covered online sellers, creators, and service providers in the Philippines must display wherever they do business online — their website, marketplace profile, or mobile app. The badge is free to obtain. Covered taxpayers have until 31 October 2026 to comply. Get it through ORUS by synchronising or updating your registration, then post it on every active channel.
Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 38-2026, issued on 29 April 2026, introduced the badge requirement. The Bureau extended the compliance date to 31 October 2026 through Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 99-2026. This guide covers who is included, how to secure the badge, where it belongs, and how to keep the display valid.
Table of contents
Who the Badge Rule Covers
RMC No. 38-2026 implements the posting-of-proof-of-registration requirement under Section 5(H) of Revenue Regulations No. 7-2024 and Section 7 of RR No. 15-2024, and it reaches further than online shops. It applies to sellers of goods and also to people providing services through digital or electronic means or with an online presence: professionals offering services through a website, an e-commerce platform or a mobile application, plus bloggers, vloggers, live streamers, content creators, influencers, and individuals earning through online views, advertisements, affiliate commissions, brand sponsorships, or similar monetised digital activities.
In practice that covers a wide range of familiar Philippine businesses. A home baker in Quezon City taking cake orders through Messenger is in scope, as is a Cebu-based graphic designer who accepts bookings on her own website, a seller running shop accounts on both Shopee and Lazada, and a creator earning from brand partnerships on TikTok.
Before the badge can be issued, your BIR Certificate of Registration or eCOR needs to carry the right industry or occupational code for your online activity. The circular lists these:
- PSOC 5990 — Online Content Creator
- PSIC 47913 — Retail sale via internet
- PSIC 47911 — Retail sale via mail order
- PSIC 47912 — Retail sale via telephone order
- PSIC 85593 — Online tutorial services
How to Get Your Badge
The badge is issued free of charge. How you proceed depends on whether your existing registration details — particularly the classification code on your COR or eCOR — already reflect your online activity.
If your registration information is already correct, RMC No. 64-2026 provides a synchronisation route for existing business taxpayers through ORUS:
- Sign in to ORUS or create an account if you do not have one.
- Open your Profile and select Synchronize to align your ORUS record with your existing BIR registration.
- Go to Certificates and Permits.
- Download the latest QR-enabled COR and the Registration Seal Badge.
A ₱30.00 loose Documentary Stamp Tax applies to the new certificate — it is a charge on the document itself, not a separate badge fee — and is settled through an available BIR ePayment channel. Keep your proof of payment on record.
If your registration information needs updating — for example, to add the correct PSIC or PSOC code for your online activity — use the standard update workflow in ORUS before proceeding to Certificates and Permits, or visit the revenue district office where you are registered.
Both the updated COR and the badge carry a QR code that anyone can scan to confirm a registration is authentic and current. You are not required to replace an existing COR that has no QR code, but the synchronisation or update step is what lets the Bureau issue the QR-enabled version.
Screen names inside ORUS change from time to time, so treat the Bureau's on-screen instructions as the final word. Keep the downloaded badge file where you can find it again — you will probably need to upload it more than once.
Where the Badge Must Appear
The circular sets out where the badge belongs depending on how you sell. If you operate in more than one place — your own site plus two marketplace accounts — each presence needs the badge.
| Your online presence | Where the badge goes | Typical page names |
|---|---|---|
| Your own website or mobile application | Any page or link on the site | About, Company, Government Compliance, Business Permits |
| E-commerce platforms and their mobile apps | The app's support or settings area | Support, About, App Settings, Government Compliance, Business Permits |
| Seller or merchant accounts on a platform | The account's own public pages | Seller or merchant page, profile, store or shop details, business page |
On Your Own Website
An About page is the usual home for the badge, and a sensible one, because buyers already go there to work out who they are dealing with. Upload the image through your content management system as normal, give it descriptive alt text such as "BIR Registration Seal Badge", and publish it at a size where the QR code can still be scanned from a phone. If you manage your site yourself on web hosting with cPanel, you can also upload the file through File Manager.
If you sell only through marketplace accounts today, those profiles cover you for the platforms themselves. A site of your own gives you one page you control, where compliance details, contact information and policies sit together. An AI website builder is a practical way to get that page up without a developer.
On Marketplace and Social Accounts
On Shopee, Lazada or TikTok Shop, the badge goes on the seller or shop profile rather than on individual listings. For a business taking most of its orders through a Facebook page, the equivalent is the page's own information area, where buyers look before sending a first message.
Keeping the Badge Display Valid
The circular also sets display guidelines, and they are easy to meet once you know them:
- Post only the badge. There is no need to publish your whole COR or the page it sits on.
- You may crop, scan or extract just the badge image for uploading.
- The uploaded badge should stay clear, readable and unaltered, preserving all its design elements.
- It should be visible and easily accessible to customers, not buried where nobody looks.
That last point is the one most worth checking. A badge in a footer that collapses on mobile, or on a page nothing links to, technically exists but does not do its job for the buyer.
Two habits work against the badge: shrinking it until the QR code no longer scans, and editing it to match a site's colours. It is a verification tool, so it needs to stay scannable and unchanged. When anyone scans it, the result should open on the official BIR verification domain at verify.bir.gov.ph.
A Short Compliance Checklist
- Check that the PSIC or PSOC code covering your online activity appears on your COR or eCOR.
- Synchronise your ORUS record if your COR details are already correct, or complete the update workflow if you need to add a classification code; download the badge and save the file.
- Add the badge to every online presence you actually use, not just your main one.
- Scan your own published badge from a phone to confirm the QR code still reads at that size.
- Re-check the badge whenever your registration details change or you open a new sales channel.
If you are checking on the same phone that has the page open, a second device gives a more reliable test — some phones cannot read a QR code displayed on their own screen. Most standard camera apps will scan it without a dedicated QR reader.
The badge is a verification signal, not a decoration. If a customer can find it in a few seconds and scan it successfully, it is doing the job it was designed for — and your pages carry a trust signal they did not have before.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need my own website to comply?
No. The requirement follows wherever you actually do business online. If you sell only through a marketplace account, posting the badge on that seller or shop profile is what applies to you. A website of your own becomes relevant if you take orders, bookings or payments outside a platform, because then there is no marketplace profile carrying your business details for you.
How much does the badge cost?
The BIR issues the Registration Seal Badge free of charge. Whether you synchronise an unchanged registration or submit a full update, a ₱30.00 loose Documentary Stamp Tax applies to the new QR-enabled certificate — not to the badge image separately. Keep your proof of payment on record. No third party needs to be paid to generate the badge for you.
What does the 31 October 2026 date mean?
RMC No. 99-2026 extended the compliance period so that covered taxpayers who had not yet displayed the badge could do so until 31 October 2026, without penalties arising solely from the non-display during that period. The underlying obligation to post proof of registration comes from RR No. 7-2024 and RR No. 15-2024, so treat that date as the point by which your badge should be up.
Can I post my Certificate of Registration instead?
The badge was introduced precisely so you would not have to. The Bureau created it to address concerns about publishing the sensitive details printed on a COR or eCOR, and the display guidelines say that only the badge should be posted. Keep your certificate for your records and for anyone entitled to ask for it directly, and publish the badge online.
Does this replace my DTI obligations?
No — they sit side by side. The BIR badge shows that your tax registration is valid and verifiable. Separate rules under the Internet Transactions Act govern what business information an online seller's website has to disclose, which we cover in our guide to DTI's online selling disclosure rules. Meeting one does not satisfy the other. A BIR badge may sit on an accessible About or Compliance page, but DTI disclosure requirements depend on your selling model — for covered e-retailers, certain information must appear on the homepage rather than a secondary page alone.
The BIR Registration Seal Badge turns something invisible — your registration status — into a signal a buyer can check in seconds. Getting it is a short administrative task: confirm your industry code is correct, then synchronise or update your registration through ORUS or your revenue district office, pay the Documentary Stamp Tax on the certificate, keep your proof of payment, and download the badge. Displaying it well takes a little more care, mainly keeping it readable, unaltered and easy to find on every channel you sell through. With the compliance date set at 31 October 2026, the next step is to check which of your online presences already shows the badge and which still needs it.
A website you control gives you one place for your compliance page, your contact details and your policies — the page buyers check before they order.
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