Let’s play a quick zoning-and-tax-base puzzle. In the photo is the iconic house from the animated movie “Up.” For those unfamiliar with the movie, Carl’s (main character) house in Up is a small, colorful wooden home that looks like it came straight out of a storybook. Over time, towering gray buildings rise around it as developers buy out the entire neighborhood. But Carl refuses to sell. His little house becomes the last remaining holdout, a lone splash of color in a sea of

Congress may have passed a bill to revive and extend the Estate Tax Amnesty until 2028—but don’t expect a full surge in estate settlements just yet. Two years ago, we invited Atty. Jojo Mejia to speak on Estate Settlement Taxation and Planning in the Light of TRAIN Law. His talk focused less on theory and more on the uncomfortable truth: the real bottleneck isn’t the tax. It’s the people. In practice, estates remain unsettled not because heirs refuse to pay, but because famil

Have you ever noticed how almost every Tax Identification Number (TIN) ends with “000”? It’s not a random set of zeros—it’s what the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) calls the branch code. A TIN has twelve digits. The first nine identify the taxpayer, while the last three digits tell the BIR which branch filed the tax return. For instance, if ABC Food Corp. operates three branches, the head office might be 123-456-789-000, while its other branches would be 123-456-789-001 and

Here’s a new development. We’ve always made manager’s checks payable to “Registry of Deeds of [City]” when settling registration fees. Apparently, not anymore. In a recent Makati title transfer, we discovered that the correct payee is now “Bureau of the Treasury.” I checked with our Documentation Services team if this applies to all cities — and the answer is no. So before asking clients to prepare manager’s checks for registration and IT fees, wait for the official computati

A notary public is an officer of the court empowered to verify that a document was signed voluntarily and by the person whose name appears on it. Once a document bears a notarial seal, it gains a presumption of authenticity. By law, notarization is an act of acknowledgment that the person appeared before the notary, presented valid identification, and signed the document in the notary’s presence–just like how PH documents are consularized abroad. In practice, however, notariz

Breaking: Banks tighten scrutiny on large payments — even to the BIR. In the aftermath of the flood control fund controversy, banks are suddenly becoming more cautious — even with legitimate government transactions. Sources report that Landbank now requires anyone depositing more than P500,000 — including tax payments to the BIR — to disclose extensive personal details: the names, addresses, birthdates, birthplaces, professions, and occupations of both the buyer and seller. I

Once upon a time, a broker was at a government office, ready to file a title transfer. Everything seemed in order—until the officer...

Q: What's new? The Supreme Court approved the Rules on Electronic Notarization (E-Notarization Rules) on March 9, 2025. Q: Why is this...

The quick answer: yes. This usually happens when the tax declaration hasn’t been updated to match the title. But it also happens in a...

At first glance, it seems like a straightforward question: What barangay is this property in? But if you've ever dealt with land in Metro...