TIN Registration: ORUS, Walk-In, 10-Day Rule

A TIN is free, and the clock on getting one is 10 days from the date of employment. Both figures come from BIR’s own 2026 Citizen’s Charter, which is the source for everything on this page.

The routes and what they cost

The ₱30.00 is documentary stamp tax, not a charge for the number. Nothing on this list is a fee for the TIN itself.

Offices run 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the Revenue District Office Client Support Section.

The 10-day rule

BIR’s charter states that a local employee shall register within 10 days from the date of employment. That is the only hard deadline attached to a first TIN, and it sits on the employee even though the mechanics usually run through the employer.

How the ORUS route actually works

The Online Registration and Update System lives at orus.bir.gov.ph. BIR describes it as providing an end-to-end process for taxpayer registration and for updating registration information.

For a local employee the sequence is:

1. The employer registers the employee through the Employer Service Link
2. The employee receives a link by email
3. The employee creates an ORUS account
4. The employee uploads scanned documents, including a selfie holding the ID
5. BIR evaluates and approves or denies the application

BIR’s published breakdown for the evaluation step alone is 2 days, 7 hours and 30 minutes, inside a total of 3 days.

Which form applies to you

The charter asks for 2 originals of BIR Form 1902 for a local employee and 2 originals of BIR Form 1904 for an EO 98 or ONETT applicant. The 1901 against 1902 guide compares the two most common ones side by side.

The IDs BIR accepts, and who issues them

BIR’s charter is unusual in naming the issuing agency next to each ID.

The ID must show name, address and birthdate. Where it carries no address, BIR asks for additional proof of residence or business address in the applicant’s name. All IDs must be readable, untampered and consistent with the documents submitted.

Two situational additions: a married female local employee adds a marriage contract, and a foreign national submits the passport bio page including entry and exit stamps.

Where to register, by situation

An OFW usually needs the TIN alongside other documents. The Balik-Manggagawa OEC guide covers one of them, and the OWWA membership guide another.

After the TIN: the card and the certification

That ₱130.00 is explained in the charter itself: a registration certification fee may not exceed ₱100.00, plus the documentary stamp tax under Section 188 of the National Internal Revenue Code. The TIN ID guide covers the card in full.

You register once, and the annual fee is gone

RA 11976, the Ease of Paying Taxes Act, approved 5 January 2024, rewrote Section 236 of the Tax Code. The amended subsection (A) now opens:

Every person subject to any internal revenue tax shall register once, either electronically or manually, with the appropriate Revenue District Office.

Subsection (B) of the amended section is now “Registration of Each Type of Internal Revenue Tax”. The subsection that carried the ₱500.00 annual registration fee is not in the amended text, which is why the January queue to pay it on Form 0605 is no longer a statutory obligation.

Which RDO you belong to

The Revenue District Office is not chosen. Section 236(A) fixes it by jurisdiction, and the same section sets when you must register.

A person maintaining a head office, branch or facility registers with the Revenue District Officer having jurisdiction over that head office, branch or facility. The Code defines “facility” broadly, including but not limited to sales outlets, places of production, warehouses and storage places.

So an employee’s RDO follows the employer’s registered address, and a business owner’s follows the place of business, not the owner’s home. Moving either is what triggers a transfer, and the Form 1905 guide covers that route.

BIR’s own Revenue District Office directory did not render on its current website at the time of writing, so no district list, address or contact is reproduced here. Your RDO code appears on your Certificate of Registration, Form 2303.

What Form 0605 is still for

The form did not disappear with the fee. BIR describes Form 0605 as the Payment Form, accomplished every time a taxpayer pays taxes and fees that do not require a tax return.

BIR gives two triggers for accomplishing it: every time a tax payment or penalty is due or an advance payment is made, and upon receipt of a demand letter, assessment notice or collection letter from the BIR.

So the January queue is gone, but a letter from the BIR still routes to the same form.

The same “either electronically or manually” phrase now runs through filing, payment, transfer of registration and cancellation. Transfer happens by merely filing an update application, and cancellation upon mere filing, both either way.

Two related changes in the same Act:

The authority to print guide covers that process, and the eFPS guide maps the systems you can register and file through.

What this page does not cover

BIR does not publish, in the charter pages read for this guide, the ORUS account registration steps for a self-employed applicant in the same detail as for an employee, the penalty for missing the 10-day registration deadline, or any income tax filing deadline. None of those are stated here.

Related

The 1901 against 1902 guide covers which form to file. The TIN ID guide covers the card, and TIN verification covers checking a number you already have.

• All BIR guides
• Calculators
• How figures on this site are sourced