Are zonal values still used?

BIR still publishes them, organised by revenue region and Revenue District Office under Department Orders. What changed is their statutory role: Section 6(E), which gave the Commissioner authority to prescribe zonal values, was repealed by Section 38(c) of RA 12001, the Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act.

So what is capital gains tax computed on now?

Under Section 18(a)(3) of RA 12001, the Commissioner uses the Schedule of Market Values or the actual gross selling price stated in the transaction documents, whichever is higher. The rate is unchanged at 6%, and it is still charged on the higher figure rather than on your profit.

How many revenue regions are there?

Nineteen, numbered 1 to 19, but the page lists twenty-one entries because two are split. Revenue Region 7 is split into 7A Quezon City and 7B East NCR, Revenue Region 8 into 8A Makati City and 8B South NCR, and Revenue Region 9 into 9A CABAMIRO and 9B LAQUEMAR.

What do CABAMIRO and LAQUEMAR mean?

They are contractions of the provinces each covers. CABAMIRO is Cavite, Batangas, Mindoro and Romblon. LAQUEMAR is Laguna, Quezon and Marinduque.

What is a Department Order in this context?

The issuance that fixes the schedule for a given RDO. BIR's own example is RDO No. 1 Laoag City in Ilocos Norte under Department Order No. 047-2023. Each RDO's values are tied to its own order, so two neighbouring districts can be operating on different vintages.

Does this change what I owe on documentary stamp tax?

The comparator moved for DST as well. DST on a property sale is 1.5% of the higher of the price or the fair market value, and the fair market value side now comes from the Schedule of Market Values rather than a zonal value.

Is the zonal value the same as my assessed value for amilyar?

No. Real property tax is charged on assessed value, which is a percentage of fair market value set by assessment level, and residential land is assessed at 20%. That is a different figure from a zonal value and from a Schedule of Market Values entry.

BIR Zonal Values: Still Published, No Longer the Base

Q: Where do I find the zonal value for my property?

On BIR's Zonal Values page, first by Revenue Region, then by Revenue District Office. Each RDO entry names its number and city, the province, the governing Department Order, and the list of cities and municipalities it covers.

The awkward position first: BIR still publishes zonal values, but the provision that created them has been repealed. Both halves are true, and the pages that tell you only one of them will cost you money.

What BIR still publishes

Zonal values are organised by Revenue Region, then by Revenue District Office, then by Department Order.

Revenue Region	Covers
1	Calasiao, Pangasinan
2	CAR, the Cordillera Administrative Region
3	Tuguegarao, Cagayan
4	San Fernando, Pampanga
5	Caloocan
6	Manila
7A and 7B	Quezon City, and East NCR
8A and 8B	Makati City, and South NCR
9A and 9B	CABAMIRO and LAQUEMAR
10 to 19	Legaspi, Iloilo, Bacolod, Cebu, Tacloban, Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, Butuan, Koronadal and Davao

Nineteen numbered regions, twenty-one entries, because 7, 8 and 9 are each split in two. The two contractions are provinces run together: CABAMIRO is Cavite, Batangas, Mindoro and Romblon; LAQUEMAR is Laguna, Quezon and Marinduque.

Inside a region, each RDO entry names its number and city, the province, the governing Department Order, and every city and municipality it covers. BIR’s own worked example is RDO No. 1, Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, under Department Order No. 047-2023, covering 24 named localities from Laoag City and Adams through to Vintar.

Two consequences follow from that structure. Your figure depends on which RDO your property sits in, not which city you live in. And because each RDO has its own Department Order, neighbouring districts can be running on different vintages.

What was repealed

Section 6(E) of the Tax Code gave the Commissioner authority to prescribe zonal values. It was repealed by Section 38(c) of RA 12001, the Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act.

In its place, Section 18(a)(3) of RA 12001 directs the Commissioner to use:

the Schedule of Market Values, or the actual gross selling price in consideration as stated in the transaction documents, whichever is higher.

Before	Now
Higher of the Commissioner’s zonal value or the assessor’s schedule of values	The Schedule of Market Values

The tax did not change. The comparator did.

What that means for the two transfer taxes

Tax	Rate	Charged on
Capital gains tax	6%, final	The higher of gross selling price or fair market value
Documentary stamp tax	1.5%	The higher of gross selling price or fair market value

On a ₱3,000,000.00 sale that is ₱180,000.00 of capital gains tax and ₱45,000.00 of DST, before any local transfer tax or registration fee.

Capital gains tax is charged on gains presumed to have been realized, so it is due on the full consideration even where you sold at a loss. The capital gains tax guide covers the principal residence exemption and its four conditions, and the capital gains tax calculator applies the 6% to whichever base is higher.

The documentary stamp tax guide covers the rest of the DST schedule, and the DST calculator carries all five formulas.

It is not the same as your amilyar base

Three different property figures get confused constantly:

Figure	What it is for
Zonal value	Published by BIR per RDO; its statutory authority has been repealed
Schedule of Market Values	The comparator for capital gains tax and DST under RA 12001
Assessed value	The base for annual real property tax, being a percentage of fair market value

Real property tax runs on assessed value, not market value, and residential land is assessed at 20%. That is why estimates built from a market figure come out far too high.

Residential land with a fair market value of ₱2,000,000.00, in a city:

Step	Figure
Fair market value	₱2,000,000.00
Assessment level, residential land	20%
Assessed value	₱400,000.00
Basic tax at the 2% city maximum	₱8,000.00
Special Education Fund at 1%	₱4,000.00
Annual total at the statutory maximum	₱12,000.00

The same land in a province, where the basic rate caps at 1%, is ₱4,000.00 plus ₱4,000.00, so ₱8,000.00. Note that the annual charge sits on ₱400,000.00 while a transfer tax on the same land would run off the ₱2,000,000.00 side. The real property tax guide sets out the assessment levels and the calculator applies them.

What this page does not do

It does not reproduce any RDO’s schedule of values. Those are published per Department Order and change on their own timetables, so a copy here would go stale silently and a stale valuation is worse than none.

It also does not cover the transition arrangements under RA 12001 for LGUs adopting new Schedules of Market Values, which are an assessor-side process rather than something a seller files.

Where this goes wrong

Computing capital gains tax off a zonal value. The comparator is now the Schedule of Market Values.

Assuming the rate changed. It did not. Capital gains tax is still 6% and DST still 1.5%.

Looking up your city instead of your RDO. The schedules are published per Revenue District Office.

Assuming neighbouring areas share a vintage. Each RDO has its own Department Order.

Confusing the zonal value with the amilyar base. Real property tax runs on assessed value at a 20% assessment level for residential land.

Reading a pre-2024 explainer. Anything describing Section 6(E) as live is describing a repealed provision.