New SEC memo makes it easy and cheap to legalize your business this year

The discount lasts until the end of the year.

Running a digital storefront, an independent clothing line, or a freelance agency from your bedroom? If your business has been stuck in the “underground” phase because registering felt too expensive and buried in bureaucracy, it’s time to change that.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) just gave small entrepreneurs a big win with SEC Memorandum Circular No. 19, which prolongs the 20% discount on initial corporate registration fees and the staggering 50% discount on securities registration fees for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) until December 31, 2026.

If your total business assets are under ₱3 million, you legally qualify as a micro-enterprise under the Magna Carta for MSMEs—so you can take advantage of these deep discounts.

Four steps to legitimize your biz

Step 1: Lock in your name via SEC ESPARC

The whole thing starts on the Electronic Simplified Processing of Application for Registration of Company (eSPARC). Create an account and use their real-time name verification tool to check that your digital store name is not already trademarked or duplicated.

Step 2: Go the one-person corporation (OPC) route 

For solo side-hustlers, the OPC structure is a major advantage. Unlike traditional corporations that require a board of 5 to 15 people, an OPC lets you be the sole stockholder and director. It adds a prestigious “Corp.” suffix to your brand, instantly giving you access to corporate bank accounts and larger suppliers while keeping your personal savings completely safe from business liabilities.

Step 3: Claim your automatic 20% discount 

No need to send stacks of paperwork to get your discount. If you are completing your digital Articles of Incorporation on eSPARC, simply enter your actual asset size. If under the ₱3 million threshold, the system automatically deducts 20% off your registration fee before your payment voucher, which you can pay instantly via GCash, Maya, or LandBank.

Step 4: Unlock your digital certificate of incorporation 

Once your digital application is verified and paid for, your official corporate charter is unlocked. Download your digital Certificate of Incorporation directly from the portal, print it out, and you’re ready to head to the BIR and your local LGU to finalize your formal business permits.

For many years, the very difficulty of corporate registration kept young Filipino MSMEs from becoming legitimate. By maintaining these steep 20% to 50% discounts through 2026 and shifting the entire workflow to the eSPARC platform, the SEC has made a major change. Legitimacy is now a highly strategic move to safeguard your business and create genuine brand equity at a minimal cost, rather than a bureaucratic pain in the ass.

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