Change of Tax ID, Transfer of Ownership & Business Merging
Tax authorities identify a taxable business by a single, permanent tax / business registration number in Rwanda this is the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). That number belongs to a legal entity or branch and is generally expected to stay with it for the life of that branch. Rexolia applies the same principle in every country it supports: your tax / business ID is treated as a permanent identity attached to each registered business branch (entity). It is not a field you edit as circumstances change.
Because registration rules differ from one tax authority to the next, this article first sets out the general principle, then walks through the concrete procedure for the Rwandan (RRA EBM) case, where those rules are the most explicitly enforced.
Applies to every country but confirm your own authority's rules
The permanent-identity principle below is universal in Rexolia: once a
branch has real transaction history, its tax / business ID is not editable in
place, and the correct path for a genuine change is to register a new branch
and transfer to it. However, the exact rules, what counts as a change that
requires a new number, who issues the new number, when an in-place edit is
allowed, and how the old number is retired are set by each tax authority
individually. The mechanics in this article (EBM/VSDC integration, tax
classes, nil reporting, per branch numbering) are written for Rwanda's RRA
EBM program, where the hard rules apply to branches registered with country
RW. If your business is registered elsewhere, treat this article as guidance
and verify the specific requirements that apply to you with your own tax
authority before acting.
This article explains:
- What Rexolia locks automatically to protect the audit trail, and why.
- The correct, tax-authority-compliant procedure to follow when your business genuinely needs a different tax ID (new company, transfer of ownership, acquisition, or merger) described here for the Rwandan case.
- How your inventory and your sales numbering move to the new tax ID.
Rwanda: Read this before changing business details For a Rwandan business branch that has already issued a normal sales receipt, the TIN, VAT number and country cannot be edited in place. Rexolia will refuse the change and treats past transactions as permanent. There is no supported path to delete or rewrite historical receipts in order to bypass this. Trying to "fix" the TIN on an existing branch is not a supported path. The correct path (below) is to register a new branch and transfer to it.
1. What Rexolia locks automatically (data integrity)
Once a business branch registered to Rwanda (country RW) has issued at
least one NS sales receipt, the following cannot be changed on that
branch's record:
| Field | Can be changed ? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| TIN | No | The TIN is the identity RRA's VSDC files receipts against. Changing it retroactively would split a single fiscal identity in two. |
| VAT number | No | Legally tied to the same taxable entity as the TIN. |
| Country | No | Moving the branch out of/re-into Rwanda would invalidate the fiscal history recorded against it. |
If you are granted authorisation to try and edit one of these fields after a normal sale, the system keeps the original value and returns an error such as:
"Business ID (TIN) cannot be changed once normal sales receipts have been issued. For ownership transfer, acquisition, or business merging, please register a new business entity."
In addition, the same integrity principle applies across the wider record set:
- Existing receipts cannot be deleted or reset. Financial and inventory history is permanent by design, exactly to satisfy RRA's requirement that a sequence of fiscal records be unbroken and tamper-evident.
- A warehouse cannot be re-pointed at a different branch. Changing which entity a warehouse belongs to is blocked once the warehouse is established, so stock history never gets silently reassigned to another TIN.
These are deliberate safeguards. Where RRA requires a way forward for a legitimate corporate event, that way forward is the new-branch procedure in the next section never by rewriting history.
2. When do you actually need a new TIN?
Register a new business branch with the new TIN (and follow the procedure below) when the change is substantive rather than cosmetic, for example:
- Incorporation of a new company that will now trade instead of the old one.
- Transfer of ownership / sale of the business where the new owner operates under a different TIN.
- Acquisition or merger that produces a different legal entity and TIN.
- Correction of an incorrectly captured TIN on a branch that has not yet issued any NS sales receipt in that narrow case the branch is still "mutable" and the values can be fixed directly (see section 5).
A pure address, phone, or tax-rate change does not require a new branch. Those fields stay editable and are safe to update at any time.
3. The compliant procedure for a TIN / ownership change
Step 1: Confirm the new TIN is ready
Obtain the new 10-digit TIN from RRA before starting. You cannot re-open this decision on the old branch later.
Step 2: Archive the old branch (retire the old TIN)
The branch holding the old TIN is brought to a closed / archived state so that it can no longer issue new transactions:
- Stop issuing new sales against the old branch.
- Settle or acknowledge any open period before archiving (sales made to date stay valid and filed under the old TIN).
- Archive the branch in Settings → Business.
Once archived, the old TIN branch is read-only: its historical receipts, reports and inventory remain fully available for audit, but no new sales or stock activity can be recorded against it.
Historical records are never destroyed Archiving never deletes the old branch's records. Its entire lifetime of receipts stays intact and reportable. This is what lets you re-file or be audited against the old TIN whenever needed. Do not confuse archiving with deletion (deletion of fiscal records is not permitted).
Step 3: Register a new branch with the new TIN
- Go to rexolia.com and register a new business branch.
- Enter the business name and the new 10-digit TIN and the correct Rwandan country setting.
- Confirm your RRA compliance configuration is applied to the new branch (tax classes A–D and the fiscal defaults, as described in Initial setups).
Because this is a brand-new branch, the new TIN starts clean:
- Sales numbering restarts. Each branch numbers its own receipts from its own sequence with a unique receipt prefix, so the new TIN's very first receipt is its receipt 1. It does not continue the old branch's counter.
Step 4: Create the new branch's warehouse
Create an Active warehouse linked to the new branch:
Operations Hub → Warehouse → New Warehouse, and set the Associated Business Location to the new branch. (See Registering Warehouse) As with any established warehouse, the link to the new branch is permanent. Directing a warehouse to a branch is confirming asset ownership to that branch TIN. Migration of those assets/ inventory can only be done via stock transfer.
Step 5: Perform the inventory transfer (opening stock of the new TIN)
Move your sellable stock onto the new TIN so it has a correct starting stock under the new identity:
- Record a controlled outbound / adjustment against the old branch's warehouse (Return / Issue) for the stock moving across.
- Receive the same quantities into the new branch's warehouse as its opening stock. An incoming reception / opening-stock entry against the new branch records the inventory inbound to the new TIN, which sets that branch's starting stock track.
This inbound is essential: it is what tells Rexolia (and, for Rwandan businesses, RRA's inventory reporting) how much stock the new TIN started with. So the new branch begins life with an accurate, fully traced stock position instead of an empty or guessed one.
Do this before the first sale on the new TIN Complete the transfer into the new warehouse before you start selling from the new branch, so that sales deplete a correctly seeded stock balance from the very first receipt.
Step 6: Switch operations across and decommission the old branch
- Point your POS / active business location at the new branch.
- Confirm the old branch shows as archived and no longer appears as a choice for new sales or stock movements.
4. What this means for your reports
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Can I re-file the old TIN's sales? | Yes, the archived branch retains its full, unaltered history and reports. |
| Do the two branches share receipt numbers? | No, each branch (every TIN) numbers its receipts independently from 1. |
| What if I still need old-branch data after archiving? | It remains fully viewable and reportable. Only new activity is stopped. |
5. Branch that has not yet sold
If a Rwandan Business branch has not yet issued any NS sales receipt, its TIN, VAT number and country are still mutable. This is to allow correction of typo in your Business information. This is the correct window to fix a captured value:
- Go to Settings → Business.
- Update data such as: TIN / VAT / country, address etc.
- Save.
There is a narrow window in normal use: once the first NS receipt is issued, that branch's identity becomes permanent and Section 3 is the only supported route for any later change.
Not sure whether you already sold? If you cannot tell whether any NS receipt exists, do not attempt an edit, save yourself the error and instead evaluate whether the change is necessary. If it is, follow Section 3 so you never risk an unbroken identity.
6. Summary checklist for your TIN update
- Confirm the new TIN is issued by RRA and ready.
- Stop new activity on the old branch.
- Archive the old branch (its history is preserved, read-only).
- Register the new branch with the new TIN.
- Confirm tax classes A - D and fiscal defaults on the new branch.
- Create an Active warehouse on the new branch.
- Transfer inventory into that warehouse to seed the new TIN's opening stock.
- Point POS at the new branch and begin selling. Numbering starts at 1.
- Keep the archived branch for audit / re-filing only. In some countries, you are legally required to keep these Business records for at least 10 years. Consult with your legal and tax adviser.
Related: New Business / Branch with a New TIN · Branch & System Configuration · Initial setups · RRA EBM setup · RRA receipts & nil reporting