Tax Alert No. 17 [Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 42-2022 dated 07 April 2022 and RMC No. 44-2022 dated 12 April 2022]

Clarifying the Deadline for Filing of Annual Income Tax Returns (AITR) for Taxable Year Ending December 31, 2021; Providing Guidelines in the Manner of Filing and Payment thereof; Non-imposition of Surcharge on Amended Returns and Providing the Guidelines in the Filing of Annual Income Tax Due Thereon for Taxable year 2021

The Commissioner of Internal Revenue (CIR) has issued RMC No. 42-2022 reiterating the deadline for filing of AITR for Calendar Year (CY) 2021 as well as the payment of the corresponding taxes due thereon on 18 April 2022 (Monday), since 15 April 2022 falls on a working holiday.

Tentative AITRs may be filed on or before 18 April 2022 to alleviate the difficulties in beating the deadline on a holiday and considering the challenges encountered in the hybrid working arrangement adapted by most taxpayers. The return may be amended on or before 16 May 2022, without imposition of interest, surcharge and penalties. In case the amended returns will result in overpayment of taxes, the taxpayer can opt to carry over the overpaid tax as credit against the tax due for the same tax type in the succeeding period or file for refund.

Filing for CY 2021 AITR

Tax returns may be filed thru the eBIRForms System for taxpayers required to use or voluntarily opt to use the eBIRForms, or electronically for those who are required to use or voluntarily opt to enroll in the eFPS Facility. However, 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 return using the eBIRForms System.

Payment for CY 2021 AITR

The corresponding taxes due shall be paid through any of the following payment facilities:

1. Manually thru Authorized Agent Banks and Revenue Collection Officers notwithstanding the Revenue District Office (RDO) jurisdiction.
   
2. Electronic payment (ePAY) facilities:
   
   • Land Bank of the Philippines’ (LBP) Link.Biz Portal - for taxpayers who have ATM account with LBP and/or holders of Bancnet ATM/Debit/Prepaid Card or taxpayer utilizing PCHC PayGate or PesoNet facility (depositors of RCBC, Robinsons Bank, Union Bank, BPI and PSBank);
     
   • Development Bank of the Philippines’ (DBP) Pay Tax Online - for holders of Visa/Mastercard Credit Card and/or Bancnet ATM/Debit Card; or
     
   • Union Bank of the Philippines’ (UBP) Online/The Portal - for taxpayers who have an account with UBP or InstaPay using UPAY Facility for individual non-account holder of Union Bank.
     
   • Electronic payment may also be made through Taxpayer Service Provider (TSP) such as Gcash, PayMaya and MyEG.

For taxpayers mandated to use eFPS, the filing of BIR Form 1702RT with or without payment shall be made through eFPS. Likewise, the filing of BIR Form Nos. 1702EX and 1702MX with or without payment shall be made through eBIRForms System and payment shall be through eFPS using BIR Form No. 0605. Tax type code to be used is income tax (IT) and the Alphanumeric Tax Code (ATC) is MC 200.

For newly created returns not yet available in the eFPS Facility, the filing of returns shall be through eBIRForms System.

For non-eFPS taxpayers, “No payment CY 2021 AITR”  shall be filed electronically through the eBIRForms Facility.

However, the following taxpayers may manually file their “No Payment CY 2021 AITR” using the electronic or computer-generated returns or photocopied returns in its original formal and in Legal/Folio-sized bond paper:

1. Senior Citizen or Persons with Disabilities filing their own returns;
   
2. 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 income of which has been correctly subjected to withholding tax, but whose spouse is not entitled to substituted filing; and
   
3. Employees qualified for substituted filing under Revenue Regulations No. 2-98 Sec. 2.83.4, as amended, but opted to file for an ITR and are filing for purposes of promotion, loans, scholarships, foreign travel requirements, etc.
   

Further, pursuant to Republic Act No. 8792 or the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000, all tax returns, attachments and documents can be signed by the taxpayer or its authorized officer or signatory  through electronic signature which shall be deemed equivalent to an actual signature or “wet signature” for filing purposes.

The submission of the required attachments such as but not limited to BIR Form No. 1709, as applicable, and the Audited Financial Statements, etc., to the electronically filed/amended AITR for CY 2021 pursuant to the pertinent issuances shall be made on or before 31 May 2022 to the RDO/Large Taxpayers Service/Large Taxpayers District Office where the taxpayer is registered, or electronically through the Electronic Audited Financial Statements (eAFS) System of the BIR.

For the filing of AITRs and payment of the corresponding taxes due thereof for taxable year 2021 by Corporations, Partnerships and Other Non-Individual Taxpayer Subject Only to Regular Income Tax Rate, the BIR Form No. 1702-RT is now available in the eFPS. However for manual filers, it shall file and pay through the use of the Offline eBIRForms with the guidelines attached in Annex A of RMC 44-2022.

You may access the full version of the Circulars through the BIR website.