NLF Insights

Foreign Investment Structuring After the PSA, FIA, and Investors' Lease Act

Before choosing a Philippine investment structure, check the activity, foreign-ownership limits, required licenses, land rights and project incentives.

Emails, Chats, CCTV, Cloud Files, and Metadata: Building an Admissible Electronic Evidence Record

What to preserve from emails, chats, CCTV and business systems, and how to identify the witnesses and records needed to present electronic evidence.

TRO, Preliminary Injunction, and Attachment: Emergency Remedies in High-Value Business Disputes

How to assess whether a TRO, preliminary injunction or attachment is appropriate, including the required evidence, bond and business consequences.

The First Thirty Days of a Major Civil Case: Jurisdiction, Venue, Service, Defenses, Counterclaims, and Evidence

What to check after your business receives a civil complaint, including service, deadlines, defenses, counterclaims, evidence and filing requirements.

Collective Bargaining and Voluntary Arbitration: Managing a Labor Dispute Before It Becomes an Operational Crisis

How employers can identify a CBA grievance, preserve the relevant records and prepare for voluntary arbitration while managing the operational consequences.

Beneficial Ownership in the HARBOR Era: What Complex Corporate Structures Need to Disclose and Document

Check who owns or controls your company, how you can prove it and whether that information matches your SEC filings and transaction records.

CREATE MORE for Corporate Decision-Makers: Structuring Investment, Incentives, and Commercial Commitments

What boards, CFOs and investors should check before relying on CREATE MORE incentives in an investment decision.

Before You Sue: A Litigation-Readiness Protocol for High-Value Philippine Business Disputes

Before filing a significant business case, check what you want to achieve, what you can prove and whether the available remedy will solve the problem.

Transfer Pricing Audit Readiness: How to Defend Related-Party Transactions Before the BIR Asks

How to document related-party transactions so the pricing, commercial purpose and supporting records can be explained during a BIR review.

How to Terminate a High-Risk Employee in the Philippines

Before an adverse employment decision, check the employee’s status, the legal ground, supporting evidence and required procedure.

Real Property Valuation Reform: What RA 12001 Means for Acquisitions, Property Taxes, and Valuation Disputes

What property owners and buyers should check under RA 12001, including local implementation, valuation records, taxes and evidence for a dispute.

CMEPA and the New Tax Architecture for Investments, Passive Income, and Capital Markets

Check how CMEPA affects the actual investment, taxpayer and transaction before applying a rate or updating a financial model.

From FLD/FAN to the CTA: The Taxpayer’s Decision Tree When a BIR Assessment Arrives

What to check when you receive a BIR FLD/FAN, how to prepare the protest and records, and when a CTA remedy may need to be considered.

VAT on Digital Services in the Philippines: RA 12023 Compliance Guide

What Philippine buyers and nonresident providers should check on digital-services VAT, including reverse charge, registration, affiliate recharges and platform fees.

Electronic Invoicing in the Philippines: What Businesses Need to Prepare For

Check whether the BIR electronic-invoice rules cover your business, what your systems must produce and which compliance deadline applies.

Criminal Law

The New DOJ Preliminary-Investigation Standard: What Changes

What the DOJ-NPS evidentiary standard requires you to examine when preparing a complaint, counter-affidavit or internal case assessment.

BIR Audit Defects That Can Void a Tax Assessment

When you receive a BIR assessment, check the tax computation together with the authority to audit, service of notices, applicable periods and supporting records.

How to Register a Corporation with the Philippine SEC

What to prepare for Philippine incorporation, from ownership and activity checks to the SEC application and the registrations needed afterward.

TRAIN Law: What Changed and What Later Laws Replaced

How to read TRAIN’s changes together with later amendments when assessing a current Philippine tax question.

GCash, Maya and Business Receipts: Tax Characterization and Records

Receiving money through GCash or Maya does not, by itself, tell you how it should be taxed. Identify what the payment represents and keep the records supporting it.

Employment Contracts for Philippine Employers: Classification and Clauses

What to check in an employment contract, including the actual role, probationary standards, fixed-term arrangements, statutory rights and implementation.

June 13, 2026

BIR Notice of Discrepancy: Reconcile the Findings Before Assessment

If you receive a BIR Notice of Discrepancy, confirm what it covers, record receipt and prepare the documents needed for the discussion.

June 6, 2026

One Person Corporations: Eligibility, Governance and Tax Checks

What to check before forming an OPC, including eligibility, the single stockholder’s role, required officers, separate records and tax obligations.

May 23, 2026

SME Tax Planning: Compare the Business, Owner and Compliance Costs

Compare the tax treatment of legally available business structures using the same commercial facts, with attention to deductions, credits and compliance costs.

May 16, 2026

Philippine Employer Obligations: A Coverage-Based Checklist

Before making an employment decision, check the worker’s status, applicable wage and benefit rules, and the procedure required for the proposed action.

May 9, 2026

BIR Tax Refund and Tax Credit Claims: Which Procedure Applies?

Before filing a tax-refund claim, identify the legal basis, the tax involved and the deadline that applies. A credit shown in a return does not, by itself, establish a right to recovery.

July 10, 2025

Illegal Dismissal: Exposure and Decision Records for Employers

What makes a dismissal valid, how procedural defects differ from absence of lawful cause, and what employers should preserve when a dispute arises.

Tax Law

July 1, 2025

Responding to a BIR Letter of Authority: The Initial Review

What to check when you receive a BIR LOA or eLA, including audit authority, scope, receipt records and the response to document requests.

Administrative Law

June 15, 2025

Responding to a Government Show-Cause Order: Agency-Specific Triage

Before answering a show-cause or compliance order, identify the agency, allegations, governing procedure and deadline that apply to the actual document.