How to File BIR Form 2551Q

Percentage tax applies to non-VAT taxpayers whose gross receipts stay under the P3 million VAT threshold. But within that group, only one path files it.

Not sure which you chose? The 8% vs graduated guide explains the election that decides this.

Percentage tax is 3% of your gross sales or receipts. Watch out for older guides here: under the CREATE Law the rate was temporarily cut to 1% from July 1, 2020, but it reverted to 3% effective July 1, 2023. Any guide still showing 1% is out of date.

2551Q is due within 25 days after the end of each taxable quarter:

• Q1, January to March, is due April 25.
• Q2, April to June, is due July 25.
• Q3, July to September, is due October 25.
• Q4, October to December, is due January 25 of the following year.

Note the difference from income tax: all four quarters are filed on 2551Q, including the fourth. There is no annual percentage tax return that absorbs the last quarter.

The math is simple, and unlike the income tax return it is not cumulative. Each quarter stands on its own: take that quarter's gross receipts and multiply by 3%.

Prepare 2551Q in eBIRForms or eFPS and pay through a BIR ePayment channel, an Authorized Agent Bank, or the Revenue Collection Officer. As with every return, a quarter with no receipts is still filed as a nil return. The payment channels are covered in how to pay your BIR taxes.

Percentage tax is a feature of being a small, non-VAT taxpayer. Once your gross sales or receipts exceed P3 million in a year, you are required to register for VAT. From that point you file VAT returns at 12% instead of the percentage tax, and the 8% option is no longer available to you. Crossing the threshold is a meaningful shift, so track your running gross through the year.

The most common is an 8% filer paying it anyway. If you elected 8%, you do not file 2551Q, and paying it is money handed over twice.

The second is using the old 1% rate. It reverted to 3% in mid-2023, so a return computed at 1% understates the tax.

The third, for graduated filers, is forgetting it entirely while paying income tax. It is a separate return with its own deadline, 25 days after the quarter.

The fourth is not tracking gross toward the P3 million line, then missing the point where VAT registration became required.

Percentage tax is the simplest return you file, once you know whether you file it at all. Graduated filers: gross times 3%, every quarter, 25 days after it ends. Everyone on 8%: nothing to do here. If you are still weighing the two rates, that decision, which removes or keeps this whole return, is in the 8% vs graduated guide.