IS INCOME FROM BLOGGING TAXABLE?

Is income from blogging taxable? My answer is Yes. Though there have been no concrete BIR regulation to address this question or at least I may have not found one, the basis of my opinion is Chapter 3, Section 23 of the National Internal Revenue Code which states that "A citizen of the Philippines residing therein is taxable on all income derived from sources within and without the Philippines". Therefore, it means that all revenue sources of income by a Filipino currently residing in the Philippines shall be subject to tax.

Though income from such endeavor is not subjected to withholding taxes, this shall still be within the bounds of Philippine taxation. This will then be the responsibility of the income earner or of the blogger in this case, to report to the government his earnings from abroad. And since there exists no employee-employer relationship between the publisher (blogger) and the advertising middlemen, this may be reckoned to as income from business and therefore, as just like the thousands of blogging enthusiasts in the country who also has a full-time job, will now be treated as mixed income earner.

As a mixed income earner, first and foremost, the taxpayer will now be required to register at their respective BIR District Offices as such. With it goes the responsibility to pay for the registration fee of Php.500 and may further be subjected to VAT if the annual income from blogging goes beyond Php.1,500,000 annually. It will however be a zero-rated VAT since the business is a sale to customers outside of the country. Further, the taxpayer will now be required to keep books of accounts or accounting records. There will also be additional reportorial requirement as a mixed income earner, which is the quarterly income tax and even monthly VAT reports if income is reaches the VATABLE SALE threshold.