Compliance when paying the Philippines: purpose codes, tax IDs, export certificates and what the recipient's bank will ask

Short answer. Business payments in the Philippines are legal and routine; the paperwork is about proving what the payment was for. The recipient's bank may ask them for the invoice and the purpose of the payment; you keep the invoice, the contract and the Storspay receipt. Because Storspay delivers pesos through a local partner as a domestic credit, the recipient is not handling foreign currency and the questions are fewer than on an inbound wire.

On your side

Storspay verifies your business once (KYB — registration, directors, authorised signer) and every payment carries a reference you choose: the invoice, contract or fee-note number. Keep the invoice and the receipt together; that is what your accountant, your auditor and, if ever asked, your regulator want to see. Storspay screens every recipient and payment against sanctions lists and reports in Canada and the US as required.

On the recipient's side

Inbound business payments to the Philippines are straightforward: the recipient's bank sees a domestic peso credit, and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas rules on foreign-currency inflows are handled before the money reaches the local rail. A Filipino contractor or agency will usually invoice with its TIN and, for registered businesses, its BIR registration; keep those with the Storspay receipt. Contractors are responsible for their own income tax; if you are paying employees of a registered Philippine entity rather than contractors, that entity runs payroll and withholding locally.

Contractor or employee?

Paying an independent contractor in the Philippines is a business-to-business payment: they invoice you, you pay the invoice, they handle their own tax. If the people you pay are employees of a company you own in the Philippines, that company runs payroll locally and you fund it — Storspay pays the company's account, not thirty personal accounts under a payroll you do not operate there. If you are not sure which you have, an employer-of-record or a local accountant can tell you in an hour.

What is different about the Philippines

The Philippines is the world's second-largest BPO market and the home of the virtual assistant: millions of Filipinos are paid every fortnight by companies in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. They are used to being paid to a BDO, BPI or UnionBank account by InstaPay in minutes — and to losing several per cent of each payment to the platform or the bank in between. Storspay delivers pesos at the mid-market rate with the 1% shown separately, and a fortnightly run for a whole team is one batch, one fee line, one receipt.

How a payment to the Philippines works on Storspay

1. Fund your balance in USD (ACH or wire), CAD (Interac e-Transfer or EFT), GBP (UK bank transfer) or EUR (SEPA) — to account details in your own business name. Funding is free.
2. Add the recipient once: their name as it appears on the account, the bank (BDO, BPI, Metrobank, UnionBank, Landbank, Security Bank, RCBC and the other BSP-supervised banks) and the account number. Storspay checks the account name before you confirm.
3. Type the amount in either box. Enter what you want to send and see the pesos that land, or type the pesos figure on the invoice and see what it costs you. The rate is the mid-market rate; the 1% is on its own line.
4. Confirm. The money goes over InstaPay or PESONet and usually lands within minutes — the same business day at most. The recipient gets a notification with the exact amount, and you get a receipt with the invoice reference.

Nobody in the Philippines has to sign up, install an app or touch anything other than their own bank account. Everything on the recipient side looks like an ordinary domestic transfer.

What it costs

Storspay charges 1% all-in on payments to the Philippines, with a minimum of US$2, at the mid-market rate. That one line covers conversion, settlement and delivery; there is no FX markup, no intermediary-bank charge and nothing deducted on the recipient side.

Rates in this guide are the mid-market rate on the day of writing (1 USD = 62.8267 PHP); the calculator on the homepage shows today's. Large payments are split automatically under the local channel cap, under one reference and one fee.

See what your team in the Philippines receives →

Questions businesses ask before the first payment to the Philippines

Do I need a licence to pay people in the Philippines?

No. You are a business paying invoices. Storspay and its licensed partners hold the money-transmission and local-payout licences.

Will the recipient receive foreign currency?

No — a domestic credit in pesos. That is why the recipient's bank asks less than it would for an inbound wire.

What does Storspay report?

What Canadian and US rules require of a money-services business: verified customers, screened recipients, records kept for the statutory period. Nothing about your payments is sold or shared with anyone else.

Can you pay GCash or Maya?

Not yet — Storspay pays Philippine bank accounts today, and e-wallets are on the roadmap. Most GCash and Maya users also hold a BDO, BPI, UnionBank or Landbank account.

How fast does a peso payment land?

Usually within minutes through InstaPay; larger amounts may route through PESONet and land the same business day.

Does the contractor pay anything on their side?

No. You pay 1% all-in (minimum US$2); the contractor receives the peso amount shown. Their bank does not charge for an incoming domestic credit.

Who this is for — and who it is not for

Storspay is for businesses and organisations: companies, agencies, schools, hospitals, facilitators, foundations and sole traders paying other businesses and professionals for work, goods and services. A sole trader counts as a business and signs up in their own name.

What Storspay is not is a personal money-transfer service. We do not open personal accounts, and every payment has to be a business transaction: an invoice, a contract, a fee note, work delivered. Money to family and personal transfers are not what this is, and we would rather say so now than at verification.