Tax Alert No. 14 [Tax Advisory dated 22 March 2022]

Advisory on the Annual ITR Filing for CY2021 

The Commissioner of Internal Revenue has issued a Tax Advisory to guide taxpayers on the deadline of the Annual Income Tax Return (AITR) for CY2021 as well as the venue and manner of filing.  

The salient provisions of the Tax Advisory are as follows:  

• The deadline for filing and payment of AITR for CY2021 shall be on 18 April 2022 (Monday), since 15 April 2022 falls on a Good Friday.  

• Taxpayers may pay the corresponding taxes due thereon thru Authorized Agent Banks (AABs) and Revenue Collection Officers (RCOs), notwithstanding the Revenue District Office (RDO) jurisdiction. 

• For payments through RCO, taxpayers may pay income taxes in cash and in check, regardless of the amount. The checks shall be made payable to the BIR, with or without “IFO Name” and “TIN of the taxpayer” written on  the check. Moreover, the name and branch of the receiving AAB need not be indicated therein.  

• In case the newly created tax returns are not yet available in the eFPS Facility but already available in the eBIRForms System, taxpayers shall file the said returns using the eBIR Forms System and through any payment channels.  

• Taxpayers filing through the eBIRForms Systems may pay taxes manually through AABs/RCOs, ePay facilities or BIR Taxpayers Software Providers (TSP) such as Gcash, Paymaya and MyEG. 

• “No Payment Returns” shall be filed electronically through eBIRForms. However, the following taxpayers may manually file this with the RDO using the electronic or computer-generated returns or photocopies returns in its original format in legal/folio sized paper: 

  • Senior Citizen (SC) or Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) filing for their own returns;

  • Employees deriving purely compensation income from two or more employers, concurrently or successively at any time during the taxable year, or from a single employer, although the income of which has been correctly subjected to withholding tax but whose spouse is not entitled to substituted filing; and

  • Employees qualified for substituted filing but opted to file for an ITR and are filing for purposes of promotion,loans, scholarships, foregn travel requirements, etc.

• Returns filed using eBIR Forms or eFPS without any attachment required, need not submit a printed copy of the e-filed tax returns to the Large Taxpayers/RDO offices. Likewise, for electronically filed Annual/Quarterly ITRs, taxpayers may submit its attachments to the eAFS system.  

• In general, taxpayers who are required to file electronically but filed and paid manually shall be tantamount to wrong venue filing. In case of unavailability of eFPS covered by a duly released advisory, taxpayers shall electronically file through the eBIRForms facility and pay the corresponding taxes due through the payment facilities provided above.

• However, in case of unavailability of both eFPS and eBlR Forms facility through a duly released advisory, taxpayers shall observe the procedures in manual filing and payment of taxes.