New Tax Account Number on the Ground of Change of Name

August 28, 1989 BIR RULING NO. 186-89 236 000-00 186-89 S i r : This refers to your letter dated July 27, 1988 requesting, in effect, a ruling on whether or not you are still required to have a new Tax Account Number on the ground that you have changed your name from Tiong Liong T. Ngo to Jason Ngo. cdtech It appears that you left the Philippines in 1983 to study in the U.S.A. on a study visa; that you have a Bachelor of Science in Applied Technology degree majoring in Business and Computer Technology from Florida Institute of Technology, Jensen Beach, Martin County, Florida, U.S.A.; that your present Tax Account Number is N2355-K2250-A-1 and that you have your name Tiong Liong T. Ngo changed to Jason Ngo in the Order of the Circuit Court of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit in and for Martin County, Florida under Case No. 87-992CA effective July 8, 1987. In reply, please be informed that under the provision of Section 236 of the Tax Code stating: "SEC. 236. Supplying of Taxpayer Account Number . Any person required under the authority of this Code to make, render, or file a return, statement, or other document shall be supplied with or assigned a taxpayer account number which he shall include in such return, statement or document filed with the Commissioner for his proper identification for tax purposes. "Only one account number shall be given to a person required to have one, and any person who shall secure more than one account number shall be criminally liable under the provisions of Section 337 (should now be 274) of this Code." the intent of the law in assigning a tax account number to a taxpayer is to facilitate the feeding and retrieval from the computer of the pertinent information relative to the taxpayer's return because a computer is designed to identify the taxpayer through his tax account number (TAN) only. Where the taxpayer's account number does not anymore correspond to the taxpayer's name because a new name has been used, an administrative problem would result indefinitely every time an information is sought to be recovered from the computer about the taxpayer. In the instant case, it is our opinion that since you have changed your name, you should apply for the cancellation of your old TAN number and secure a new one to correspond to your new name. However, within the prescriptive period of three (3) years from the filing of your last return wherein you used your old tax account number, it is requested that you will indicate in your income tax returns your old tax account number (TAN) below your new tax account number in the following manner: New TAN . . . (pursuant to Judicial Order to change name Issued by ____________________ On _______________________. Old TAN N2355-K2250-A-1 Cancelled on ____________ 198_____. Very truly yours, (SGD.) JOSE U. ONG Commissioner