Almost everyone dreams of investing and having their own property. Filipinos, more often than not, were raised to dream of being able to have their own, one day. This is dictated by our culture of hard work and making our family proud.
Acquiring properties in the Philippines may be easy if you know the process and if you have the required documents. This starts with the Deed of Sale between the buyer and the seller. The Deed of Absolute Sale contains the details of the buyer and seller (e.g., TIN), the price of the property, the technical description of the property, along with other provisions relating to the sale.
The Deed of Absolute Sale evidences the transaction between the buyer and seller. Before or upon signing the Deed of Absolute Sale, the seller should also provide the buyer his Owner’s Duplicate Copy of the Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT), as well as the certified true copies of the latest Tax Declaration. If the property sold is a vacant lot or no improvements have been made on it, a sworn declaration of no improvement must be executed. A Certificate of No Improvement may also be requested from the City or Municipal Assessor. To the best interest of the buyer and to confirm the legitimacy of the sale, he must also visit the subject property before proceeding with the sale.
Having the Deed of Absolute Sale does not automatically transfer the title of the subject property to the buyer. The buyer must now proceed to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), which will assess the taxes, such as the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and Documentary Stamp Tax (DST). Such taxes must be paid.
The buyer must return to the BIR to claim his Certificate Authorizing Registration (CAR/eCAR), which will be released with the following documents: a) Original copy of the Deed of Absolute Sale, with the stamp of the BIR; b) Owner’s duplicate copy of the TCT/CCT; c) Original copies of the BIR forms stamped by the BIR; d) Copies of the Tax Declaration.
The buyer must pay the transfer taxes and secure the tax clearance at the local treasurer’s office. Subsequently, he shall file the pertinent documents with the Registry of Deeds for the issuance of a new land title. The new owner’s duplicate copy of the TCT and CCT will be released once the buyer has presented his documents such as the Deed of Absolute Sale, CAR, Tax Clearance, current Tax Declaration, and official receipts of payments of CGT, DST, Tax Clearance Certificate, and Transfer Fee.
He must then file the same documents with the Municipal or Provincial Assessor’s Office for the issuance of a new Tax Declaration. It must be emphasized that the buyer must first go to the Registry of Deeds for the acquisition of a new land title before he proceeds to the Municipal or Provincial Assessor’s Office, because the name on the land title must coincide with the name indicated on the Tax Declaration.
At present, the Land Registration Authority (LRA) has been implementing the Voluntary Title Standardization Program, which provides title owners to upgrade manually-issued titles to “eTitles”, issued by the LRA’s new Computerized System.
