Authority to print and the value-added tax refund

FAILURE to secure an Authority to Print (ATP) prior to the zero-rated transaction is fatal to the taxpayer’s claim for tax refund of input tax attributable to such zero-rated sales.
In the recent case of Emerson Electric (Asia) Limited-ROHQ vs. Commissioner of Internal Revenue (CIR), the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) ruled that to prove that a taxpayer is engaged in zero-rated sales, the duly registered invoices or receipts must be presented. This assumes that the proper ATP was secured prior to the transaction. If the ATP is not indicated in the invoices or receipts, the only way to verify whether the said invoices or receipts are duly registered is for the taxpayer to present its ATP issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). Without this proof, the invoices or receipts would have no probative value for the purpose of refund.