BIR Ruling No. 458-61

December 29, 1961 BIR RULING NO. 458-61 Reference is made to your letter . . . , stating the following: cdta "Our sales representatives carry with them invoices in booklet form, containing quadruplicate copies, original of which is given to customer, triplicate and quadruplicate sent to the office for remittance and the duplicate is retained in the booklet. Also, our representatives in their course of selling, bring with them trucks loaded with merchandise. "Now, in their field work, provincial agents of the Bureau of Internal Revenue are questioning our procedure of our issuance of invoices why we do not retain the duplicate, triplicate and quadruplicate copies in the booklet. "In view of the foregoing, we would like to inquire, to avoid any misunderstanding, if there is any regulation stating: 1) That we only issue the original invoice and retain the three copies in the booklet. 2) That the provincial agents of the Bureau of Internal Revenue has the right to inventory the merchandise in the trucks." cdti In reply thereto, I have the honor to inform you as follows: Invoices may be issued only in duplicate. However, invoices may have as many duplicate copies as may be necessary for the purposes of the taxpayer. (Sec. 15, Revenue Regulations No. V-1) The retention, therefore, of a single duplicate in the pad of invoices is sufficient. The taking of an inventory of the merchandise contained in a peddling truck is not necessary and will not serve any purpose. However, internal revenue officers may inspect any such truck for verification purposes. Furthermore, any internal revenue officer may stop and search any vehicle or other means of transportation when upon reasonable grounds he believes that the same carries any article on which the specific tax has not been paid. (Sec. 167, Tax Code) cdt