RMO No. 1-2026: Prescribing Revised Policies, Controls, and Procedures for Tax Audit and Assessment Following the Lifting of the Suspension Imposed Under Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 107-2025

Key points

1. Resumed audit activities. Covered activities include issuing eLAs, MOs, and TVNs, continuing audit cases suspended under RMC No. 107-2025, and enforcement, verification, assessment, and collection activities that need audit or field operations.
2. Mandatory labels. An eLA must bear “FULL EXAMINATION OF BOOKS OF ACCOUNTS AND OTHER ACCOUNTING RECORDS”. An MO must bear “VERIFICATION, SURVEILLANCE, MONITORING, AND INSPECTION ACTIVIIES ONLY – LIMITED AUTHORITY”. A TVN must bear “VERIFICATION AUTHORITY – LIMITED SCOPE”.
3. System controls. The IRIS-CMS-A Administrator and the Information Systems Group must configure eLA templates and mandatory fields. These must require the taxpayer’s name and TIN, tax types and taxable periods, assigned Revenue Officers and Group Supervisors, the legal basis under the Tax Code for a regular or tax fraud audit, and the prescribed label.
4. TVN and MO controls. The correct instrument type must be shown, and each TVN must identify the exact transaction, declaration, or claim verified. No TVN or MO may carry language implying full audit or assessment authority.
5. Single-Instance Audit Framework. As a general rule, a taxpayer gets only one eLA per taxable year covering all applicable tax types, including VAT, and multiple or overlapping eLAs are prohibited. In fraud cases, one eLA may cover several years under RMO No. 24-2008, as amended by RMO No. 27-2010.
6. Exceptions and fraud referral. Separate authorities may be issued for transactional, event-based, or terminal cases such as ONETT, tax clearance requests, business registration cancellation, and fraud cases, but not to fragment or bypass the regular audit. Where fraud is established or reasonably indicated, the records go to the Regional Investigation Division or the National Investigation Division, and the handling office stops audit action on the affected eLAs.

Who is affected

• BIR audit offices
• IRIS-CMS-A Administrator and Information Systems Group
• Revenue Officers and Group Supervisors

Deadlines and effectivity

• Issued: January 27, 2026