Most accounting firms setting up in the Philippines want one thing: a team that supports the main office and the clients it already serves in the US, Australia or the UAE. To set up an accounting support company in the Philippines for that purpose, the structure that fits is a 100% foreign-owned domestic corporation registered as an export enterprise.
The rest of this guide is the reasoning behind that sentence, and the decisions that follow from it.
The supply side: the roles you will actually hire
A support entity is not staffed with public practitioners. The positions it fills are accountants, bookkeepers, accounts payable and receivable staff, payroll processors, reconciliation and month-end close analysts, and management reporting staff, supervised by a smaller layer of senior reviewers. Almost none of those roles requires a Philippine CPA licence, because the CPA licence governs the practice of public accountancy in the Philippines — which is precisely what this entity does not do.
That matters for how you read the licensure numbers. They are a measure of the depth of the country's accounting education system, not a headcount of who you can hire.
The measure is a substantial one. The Professional Regulation Commission's Board of Accountancy examines twice a year, and in 2025 it reported 3,156 passers from 9,533 candidates in May and 3,460 from 10,171 in October — roughly 6,600 newly licensed CPAs from about 19,700 sittings. Every candidate who sits must already hold an accountancy degree, so the examination cohort is itself an indicator of graduate flow, and the wider pool of accounting and finance graduates who never sit the examination is larger again.
Two qualifications are worth stating plainly. Licensed CPAs still matter in a support entity, in the review, supervisory and technical positions where judgement sits — the structure works because the licensed layer is small, not absent. And this is a competitive market rather than an empty one: the Board of Accountancy has itself spoken publicly about a domestic shortage of accountants. Firms that plan on hiring being effortless are usually the ones that end up paying above the market to fix a slow start.
The demand side: why these three markets
The three jurisdictions in the title are not an arbitrary grouping. Each has a different reason for the same conclusion.
The United States is losing supply while demand holds. The AICPA's 2025 Trends report records 55,152 accounting bachelor's and master's degrees awarded in the 2023–24 academic year, down 6.6% on the prior year — the third consecutive annual decline. Over the same period three in four firms that hired graduates said they expected to hire the same number or more. Enrolment has since turned upward, rising about 12% year on year for two consecutive semesters, but an enrolment recovery is four or five years away from producing anyone who can review a return.
Australia's shortage is measurable at the vacancy level. Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand surveyed members on vacancies advertised through 2025 as part of the consultation feeding Jobs and Skills Australia's 2026 Occupation Shortage List. Fill rates came in at roughly 40% for internal auditors, 49% for external auditors, 49% for general accountants and 55% for taxation accountants. Jobs and Skills Australia treats a fill rate below 67% as indicating a genuine shortage. All four sit well under it.
The UAE has created a compliance workload that did not exist five years ago. Corporate tax now applies at 0% on the first AED 375,000 of taxable income and 9% above it, with returns due nine months after the end of the tax period and supporting records retained for seven years. A phased electronic invoicing mandate follows: businesses above AED 50 million in revenue must appoint an accredited service provider by 31 July 2026, with mandatory e-invoicing for that group from 1 January 2027. This is recurring, year-round work landing on firms whose staffing was built for a lighter regime.
Different causes, one shape: more compliance work than local hiring can absorb, in three markets whose working hours between them cover most of the Philippine day.
What the entity is, and what it must not call itself
This is the one part of the filing that is specific to accounting firms, and it is where an otherwise routine application stalls.
The Philippine Accountancy Act of 2004 (Republic Act No. 9298) reserves the practice of public accountancy to registered Philippine CPAs, practising as single practitioners or in partnerships. Section 28 states that the SEC shall not register any corporation organised for the practice of public accountancy. Section 10 of the Revised Corporation Code says the same from the other direction: partnerships or associations organised to practise a profession may not organise as a corporation unless a special law allows it.
None of that obstructs an offshore support team, because the entity is not practising. It employs accountants who support the parent firm's work. The parent, licensed in its own jurisdiction, holds the client engagement and signs the deliverable.
It does decide the wording of the purpose clause. Describe the entity as outsourced business process, accounting and bookkeeping support, data processing, financial reporting support, payroll processing and back-office services, rendered to affiliates and to other entities whether located in the Philippines or abroad.
Do not describe it as offering audit, assurance, attestation or public accountancy services, or as a firm of certified public accountants. Those phrases raise a question that has no answer for a corporation, and the filing stops while it is asked. The same applies to the trading name and to the website an SEC reviewer can find.
Export status is what makes the capital work
A foreign-owned company selling into the Philippine market faces a US$200,000 paid-in capital minimum under the Foreign Investments Act. An export enterprise — one exporting at least 60% of its output or revenue — carries no minimum under the Act, and may still be up to 100% foreign-owned.
An entity billing its parent for delivered work is exporting services, so it meets the test from the first invoice. The declaration is made in the FIA module of the SEC's eSPARC filing, supported by a three-year projected sales schedule.
Two conditions are worth knowing before you file rather than after. The 60% test is ongoing, not a one-time declaration, so a firm that later takes on Philippine clients has to revisit the classification and the capital position before the ratio crosses. And there are other routes past the US$200,000 figure if export status turns out not to fit — we cover all three in a separate guide.
A branch office is the usual alternative, and it is never cheaper: the capital floor attaches to the enterprise's market classification rather than to its legal form, and only a branch posts a ₱500,000 securities deposit with the SEC. For the full comparison see foreign-owned domestic corporation vs branch office, or representative office vs branch office if the plan is a liaison presence rather than a delivery team.
Who signs the Articles of Incorporation
Section 10 of the Revised Corporation Code allows any person, partnership, association or corporation to organise a corporation, up to fifteen in number. Juridical persons may act as incorporators; the old Code allowed only natural persons. Each incorporator subscribes to at least one share.
Which route fits is not a one-size answer. It depends on the group's ownership structure, its tax position, who is intended to hold the shares over the long term, and in some cases on the parent's own constitutional documents. It is worth settling with your advisers before the name reservation rather than after the Articles are drafted.
That said, the general practice is straightforward.
Individual incorporators are the faster and cheaper route, and the more common one. Named people connected to the firm subscribe shares in their own names, and the document set stays small — identification and a subscription for each incorporator, with no corporate authority to prove.
A corporate incorporator is the route where the parent company is intended to be the shareholder from the outset, so that the ownership chain reads correctly from the certificate of incorporation onward. The cost is documentary: the parent produces a board resolution authorising the subscription and naming its signatory, plus its own constitutive documents, each authenticated or apostilled in its home jurisdiction. Assembling that set is usually the longest item on the schedule.
Shareholdings can be adjusted later in the ordinary course, subject to the tax and filing consequences that attach to any transfer of shares — but a structure that is right at incorporation is cheaper than one corrected afterwards, which is the argument for settling the question early.
Either way, three officers must be elected: a president who is also a director, a treasurer resident in the Philippines, and a corporate secretary who is both a Filipino citizen and a resident. For a firm with nobody on the ground, the corporate secretary is the role to source before filing rather than after — the board setup rules go into the rest.
Billing the parent
Two documents carry the commercial arrangement.
The intercompany service agreement describes the entity's work as services rendered to the parent, states the basis on which they are priced, and leaves client responsibility with the parent. It is read by the BIR at assessment as much as by anyone examining the structure.
The invoice determines the VAT treatment. Services billed to the foreign parent may qualify for zero-rating under Section 108(B)(2) of the Tax Code, and four conditions must all hold: the services are other than processing, manufacturing or repacking of goods; they are performed in the Philippines; the recipient is a person engaged in business conducted outside the Philippines; and payment is in acceptable foreign currency, inwardly remitted and accounted for under Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas rules.
The third condition is the one that fails on audit. Evidence that the recipient is a non-resident foreign corporation is documentary, and it is assembled in advance rather than at assessment.
Corporate income tax is otherwise 25% of net taxable income, or 20% where net taxable income is ₱5,000,000 or less and total assets ₱100,000,000 or less excluding land. Registration with PEZA or the BOI brings further incentives and constrains how much of the business can be domestic — treat it as a separate decision.
The registrations, in order
SEC incorporation
Name reservation, Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws, and the FIA module where more than 40% foreign equity is involved. The Articles must state a principal office in the Philippines, specific to street number, street name, barangay and city or municipality.
On the registered address: the SEC accepts a specific virtual or serviced address that can receive service of process. The LGU stage is different, because a business permit requires a Fire Safety Inspection Certificate, which presupposes actual premises. The two are not the same requirement, and what a virtual office does and does not cover sets out where the line falls.
Beneficial ownership
Since 1 January 2026, beneficial ownership is declared through the SEC HARBOR registry rather than through the General Information Sheet. Any natural person holding 20% or more of voting rights, shares or capital must be declared, and where nobody reaches that threshold, any natural person exercising effective control. Firms owned through a partnership or a holding structure should start tracing the chain early.
Tax registration
Register with the BIR, which covers the books of account and BIR-registered invoices and receipts. Documentary stamp tax on the original issue of shares is ₱1.50 per ₱200 of par value.
Business permit
Barangay clearance, then the mayor's permit from the local government unit where the office sits. Every business must hold one before operating, and it is renewed annually within the first 20 days of January.
Employer registrations
SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG, plus DOLE Rule 1020 establishment registration, all before the first payroll runs. The payroll compliance guide covers the contribution schedules, statutory leave and 13th-month pay that follow.
Then, annually
The General Information Sheet within 30 days of the annual stockholders' meeting, financial statements within 120 days of fiscal year end — audited above the ₱3,000,000 threshold — and the business permit renewal in January.
Frequently asked questions
Do the staff in a Philippine accounting support entity need to be CPAs?
Most do not. The Philippine CPA licence governs the practice of public accountancy in the Philippines, which a support entity does not carry out. Bookkeeping, accounts payable and receivable, payroll processing, reconciliations and management reporting are performed by accounting and finance graduates, with licensed CPAs concentrated in review and supervisory positions.
Can a foreign accounting firm own 100% of a Philippine company?
Yes. Business process outsourcing, accounting support and data processing are not on the Foreign Investment Negative List, so the entity may be up to 100% foreign-owned.
Does the Philippine entity need US$200,000 in paid-in capital?
Not if it registers as an export enterprise. An enterprise exporting at least 60% of its output or revenue carries no minimum paid-in capital under the Foreign Investments Act. The US$200,000 figure applies to a foreign-owned company selling into the Philippine domestic market.
Can the Philippine entity provide audit or assurance services?
No. Section 28 of the Philippine Accountancy Act states that the SEC shall not register any corporation organised for the practice of public accountancy. The entity employs accountants who support the parent firm's work; the parent holds the client engagement and signs the deliverable.
Should the parent company or individuals be named as incorporators?
Both are permitted under Section 10 of the Revised Corporation Code, and which one fits depends on the group's ownership structure and tax position. In general practice, individual incorporators are the faster and cheaper route because the document set is smaller. Naming the parent company requires an apostilled board resolution and constitutive documents from its home jurisdiction, and suits groups that want the parent holding the shares from the outset.
Is work billed to the foreign parent subject to VAT?
It may be zero-rated under Section 108(B)(2) of the Tax Code where four conditions are met, including that the recipient is a person engaged in business conducted outside the Philippines and that payment is made in acceptable foreign currency accounted for under Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas rules.
Set up your Philippine entity
korp.ph handles SEC incorporation, BIR and LGU registrations, corporate secretary and virtual office for foreign-owned Philippine companies, and works with Proseso Consulting on the bookkeeping, payroll and tax the entity needs once it is operating. If your firm is scaling a delivery team more broadly than accounting, our BPO setup guide covers the operational side.
Get started with incorporation for foreigners, or talk to an expert about your structure before you file.
