Getting PSA Certificates and Apostille Documents for Filipinos Abroad
Philippine Estate Tax Amnesty Series (Post #3)
How do you get birth and death certificates that are acceptable for the Philippine Estate Tax Amnesty if you are not in the Philippines? Before I give you the answer, please review what I wrote about family trees and land titles. Then, we first have to answer three other questions:
WHO are the owner(s) named in the land title you inherited?
WHERE did they die and WHEN?
WHO are ALL the inheritors including those who passed away after the death of the owner
To explain what I meant, let me zoom in and use my family as an example.
1 - WHO: Mom
My mother owned a small house and lot in Metro Manila and a few provincial lots. I collected all the titles under my mother’s name and got the latest Land Registration Authority (LRA) copy as I recommended in my other post. I will write another post on how to get LRA and other documents.
2 - WHEN and WHERE
My mom died in the Philippines before December 2017 and was included in the 2023 Estate Tax Amnesty. The 2025 extension covers everyone who died on or before May 31, 2022. Please see the first post in this series for more details. Everyone who needs a death certificate of a person who were born, married and died in the Philippines should get a Philippine Statistics Authority or PSA copy of such document. BIR only accepts PSA copies, as of this writing. Now we go to the tricky part.
3 - INHERITORS including those who died
The Bureau of Internal Revenue or BIR asked for my family tree. Although my parents were separated for decades, the Philippines considered them married. Other complications are in the infographic below.
My dad died a year after my mom so the property was channeled to him as a spouse. My unmarried brother died after them so some of the property went to him too before I can inherit. Both my mom and brother died in the Philippines but my dad died in the USA. Thus, the inheritors are my dad, my brother and finally, me and I needed to produce the following:
Mom’s PSA Copy of Death Certificate
Parent’s PSA Copy of Marriage Certificate - because some properties were in my mom’s maiden name
Dad’s Apostille Copy of Death Certificate because he died in the USA
Bother’s PSA Copy of Birth Certificate
Brother’s PSA Copy of Death Certificate
Brother’s PSA Copy of Certificate of No Marriage (CENOMAR)
My own birth certificate
My own marriage certificate
Now it’s your turn. Collect all the land titles, family members and important dates for each. Draw your family tree. Then go to PSA Serbilis to order PSA copies online. I was allowed only 3 copies at a time when I did but check if it will allow you to order more. It is more expensive to deliver it abroad so I asked them to deliver it to my relatives in the Philippines and sent a note authorizing them to receive it. If your relative died abroad, BIR needs an Apostille copy if the death happened in a country that is a member of the 1961 Hague Convention (the Philippines and USA are members). Next post, I will discuss how to get Apostille copies in the USA. Subscribe for free so you’ll not miss a post.