Do you know how to start a business in Philippines as foreigner though starting a business is not as easy as getting an employment in a business. There are ifs and buts, dos and don’ts to pick up correctly to make your journey through. Overall points to ponder are same, differing are the colors and textures depending upon the countries or locations to gearing up oneself accordingly.

Think of a name suitable to your business and is available and permissible with the authority. In Philippines you could check availability of a business name and registering same with the Security & Exchange Commission, the SEC. It would require 1 working day and PHP 40 to do so.

Starting a business

The most common company type in Philippines privately held corporations with limited liabilities. The Securities & Exchange Commission SEC in Philippines is the authority of registering LLC. The Philippine Corporation Code, section 13 prescribed minimum paid-up capital requirements to form a LLC is 25% of the authorized capital fully subscribed and in any cases this amount can’t be less than PHP 5000. Well, there are types of companies requiring more as paid-up capital than those are in general,

Insurance Broker: P 20,000,000.00 Reinsurance Broker: P 20,000,000.00 Insurance Broker and Reinsurance Broker: P 50,000,000.00 Life Insurance Company: P 1,000,000,000 Bank & Investment Company: P 50,000,000.00 

To register your company and to have required business permits you are to perform following formalities with different government bodies with or without charges;

       1 .Verification and reservation of the company name

Authority: Securities and Exchange Commission SEC

• Deposition of minimum Paid-up capital at the bank

Authority: Bank. Process requires 1 working day and no charges

• Notarization of the A&A and the Treasurer’s affidavit.

Agency: Notary

• Register the company with the SEC for Taxpayer Identification Number TIN, Security System SSS, Philippine Health Insurance Company PhilHealth, and Home Development Mutual Fund [Pag-ibig Fund].

Agency: Securities and Exchange Commission

• Getting the business permit from the BPLO [Business Permits and Licensing Office]

Obtaining barangay clearance [certificate of Residency] Obtaining Mayor’s permit Mayor’s Permit

• Payment of the annual community tax to get the community tax certificate CTC from the City Treasurer's Office CTO

Agency: City Treasurer's Office. To complete the process is required 1 working day and fee is PHP 500. 7 . Buying of Books of account Agency: Bookstore. 8 .Apply for Certificate of Registration (COR) and TIN at the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) www.bir.gov.ph Agency: Bureau of Internal Revenue.

• Pay the registration fee and documentary stamp taxes (DST) at the AAB

Agency: Bureau of Internal Revenue.

• Obtain the authority to print receipts and invoices from the BIR

Agency: Bureau of Internal Revenue 11 .Print receipts and invoices at the print shop Agency: Bureau of Internal Revenue

• Getting the business books of accounts and Printer’s Certificate of Delivery (PCD) stamped by the BIR

Agency: Bureau of Internal Revenue

• Final Registration with the Social Security System (SSS)

Agency: Social Security System

• Apply for final registration in the Philippines Health Insurance Company (PhilHealth)

Agency: Philippine Health Insurance Corporation 15 .Final registration with Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-ibig) Agency: Home Development Mutual Fund These are steps of how to start a business in Philippines as foreigner. Taxes & ITRs

In Philippines corporate tax is 30 percent and the calendar year is the fiscal year. Tax payers are required to submit their returns with payments on or before 15th April after the end of the calendar or fiscal year in December. Corporations are mandated by BIR [Bureau of Internal Revenue] to e-filing their ITRs. There are provisions for penalties for not filing on time and filing in wrongly.

• A penalty of P1,000 per return pursuant to Sec. 250 of the NIRC, as amended
• A penalty equaling to the 25 percent of the payable tax required to be paid for filing an ITR not in accordance with the provisions and regulations prescribed in 248 A[2] of the NIRC
• The non-compliant tax payers will be included in the Priority Audit Program PAP of respective RDOs [Revenue District Office]

Human Resources

In the Philippines the Labor Code of the Philippines (Labor Code) is the general labor law that regulates employments in the Philippines. It also applies to foreign nationals working in the Philippines. As per Article 294 of the labor code four types of employments are categorized. These are:

• Regular employment.
• Project employment.
• Seasonal employment.
• Casual employment.

This average salary in the Philippines is around $12,000 per year.  And the median salary in the Philippines is around $8,000 per year. Owing to economic growth salaries & wages structures are slowly increasing in Philippines. The increasing is very much visible in IT sector because of Philippines’ richness Business Process Outsourcing BPO. The average monthly salary of IT personnel is in between US$ 350 to US$ 500 depending on the skill and scopes of works. The basic salary in the Philippines is calculated by multiplying the number of hours worked per week by the hourly wage. Multiply the resulting figure again by 52 [being the number of weeks in a year].

General work day for employees is 8 hour long in Philippines. Weeks are 48 hours long; this means employees are required to 6 days in a week. Of course some offices and industries work half on Saturdays. Besides, the employees are eligible for a 13th month pay to be cleared on or before 24th December. Employees who worked at least one month in the calendar year are eligible for this benefit.

Well, important is to see business growing on a day to day basis. You need to keep in mind to validating your all licenses and permits to stay in business. This means timely renewals of business documents. In Philippines, the government offices conduct yearly random inspections, with or without notice, of the businesses to check the compliance status of the rules and regulations of the businesses as required. Penalties are there for any non-compliance detected. Read our more guide lines how to start a business in Philippines in any sectors as non residents.