BIR Compliance Calendar 2026: Every Deadline You Should Know

What Changed Under the EOPT Act for 2026

The Ease of Paying Taxes Act (RA 11976, EOPT) reshaped much of the BIR filing calendar starting in 2024, and those changes still govern 2026. The two most important shifts for small businesses are: Value-Added Tax is now filed quarterly only (the old monthly VAT declaration, BIR Form 2550M, was dropped), and Percentage Tax moved from a monthly to a quarterly filing under BIR Form 2551Q. EOPT also scrapped the ₱500 Annual Registration Fee (BIR Form 0605) that businesses used to pay every January, and it allows taxpayers to file and pay at any authorized agent bank or BIR office, not only where they are registered.

These changes reduce paperwork, but they do not reduce the number of tax types a business must track. A typical VAT-registered corporation still deals with monthly withholding remittances, quarterly VAT and income tax returns, and a cluster of annual reports due in January, March, and April. Because BIR rules and thresholds are adjusted periodically through Revenue Regulations, always cross-check exact figures against the BIR website (bir.gov.ph) or your RDO before a deadline, especially the VAT threshold, tax tables, and contribution rates cited below.

Monthly BIR Deadlines You Still Need to Track

Even with quarterly VAT and percentage tax, several obligations remain monthly:

• BIR Form 1601-C (withholding tax on compensation) — due on or before the 10th day of the following month for manual/eBIR filers; eFPS filers follow a staggered schedule, typically the 11th to 15th depending on industry grouping.
• BIR Form 0619-E (monthly remittance of creditable/expanded withholding tax) — filed only for the first two months of each quarter, since the third month is captured in the quarterly return.
• BIR Form 0619-F (monthly remittance of final withholding tax) — same first-two-months-of-quarter pattern as 0619-E.

In practice this means a calendar-year business files a withholding remittance almost every month of 2026 except when a quarterly return (1601-EQ or 1601-FQ) takes its place in March, June, September, and December.

Quarterly BIR Deadlines: VAT, Percentage Tax, Withholding, and Income Tax

Quarterly filings form the backbone of the 2026 calendar. For a business on a calendar year:

• BIR Form 2550Q (Quarterly VAT Return) — due 25 days after the close of each taxable quarter: April 25 (Q1: Jan–Mar), July 25 (Q2: Apr–Jun), October 25 (Q3: Jul–Sep), and January 25, 2027 (Q4: Oct–Dec). Applies to businesses with gross annual sales or receipts above ₱3,000,000, or those who voluntarily registered as VAT taxpayers.
• BIR Form 2551Q (Quarterly Percentage Tax Return) — same 25-day deadline, for non-VAT-registered businesses below the ₱3,000,000 threshold, at the standard 3% rate under Section 116 of the Tax Code.
• BIR Form 1601-EQ / 1601-FQ (Quarterly withholding returns) — due on the last day of the month following the quarter: April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31, 2027.
• BIR Form 1701Q (Quarterly Income Tax for self-employed individuals and professionals not on the 8% flat-tax option) — due May 15, August 15, and November 15, 2026, with no separate Q4 filing since it is absorbed into the annual return.
• BIR Form 1702Q (Quarterly Income Tax for corporations) — due 60 days after the close of each quarter, roughly May 30, August 29, and November 29, 2026 for calendar-year companies.

Worked example (2550Q): Suppose a VAT-registered trading business posts vat-exclusive sales of ₱2,500,000 for Q1 2026 (January to March). Output VAT is 12% of ₱2,500,000, or ₱300,000. If input VAT from purchases and expenses for the same period totals ₱180,000, the net VAT payable is ₱300,000 minus ₱180,000, or ₱120,000, due on April 25, 2026. In Kontabler, each sales invoice and purchase bill is tagged with the correct VAT treatment as it is recorded, so output VAT, input VAT, and the net amount due for 2550Q are computed and posted to your books automatically instead of being reassembled from spreadsheets at quarter-end.

Annual BIR Deadlines and Year-End Requirements

January and the following months carry a concentration of annual filings:

• January 31 — BIR Form 1604-C (Annual Information Return of Income Taxes Withheld on Compensation), BIR Form 1604-F (Annual Information Return of Final Withholding Taxes), and issuance of BIR Form 2316 to every employee.
• March 1 — BIR Form 1604-E (Annual Information Return of Creditable Income Taxes Withheld – Expanded), together with the alphalist of payees.
• April 15, 2026 — Annual Income Tax Return for calendar-year 2025: BIR Form 1701 or 1701A for individuals (or 1700 for those earning purely compensation income who did not use substituted filing), and BIR Form 1702 for corporations, partnerships, and other non-individual taxpayers, together with audited financial statements where required.

Self-employed individuals and professionals with gross sales or receipts not exceeding ₱3,000,000 may still elect the 8% flat income tax on gross sales/receipts in excess of ₱250,000, in lieu of the graduated income tax rates and the percentage tax. Those who stay on the graduated schedule use the TRAIN law brackets that have applied since 2023: 0% up to ₱250,000; 15% of the excess over ₱250,000 up to ₱400,000; ₱22,500 plus 20% of the excess over ₱400,000 up to ₱800,000; ₱102,500 plus 25% of the excess over ₱800,000 up to ₱2,000,000; ₱402,500 plus 30% of the excess over ₱2,000,000 up to ₱8,000,000; and ₱2,202,500 plus 35% of the excess over ₱8,000,000. Corporations that are separately governed by the CREATE Act generally pay a 20% or 25% regular corporate income tax depending on total assets and taxable income, so confirm your applicable rate with your accountant or the BIR before filing.

Businesses with employees also have mandatory contribution deadlines outside the BIR system: SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG (HDMF) remittances are typically due within the month following the applicable payroll period, on a schedule tied to the employer's SSS or Pag-IBIG number. Contribution rates and salary ceilings for SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG are adjusted periodically, so verify the current schedules on each agency's official website before computing 2026 payroll deductions.

Penalties for Missing a Deadline

Late filing or late payment under the Tax Code generally carries a 25% surcharge on the basic tax due (or 50% in cases of willful neglect or fraud), plus 12% annual interest computed from the original due date until full payment, plus a compromise penalty that varies with the amount involved. EOPT introduced simplified, more proportionate penalty structures for micro and small taxpayers, so it is worth confirming with your RDO or accountant whether your business qualifies for reduced surcharge treatment before assuming the maximum penalty applies.

Worked example (late VAT payment): Using the ₱120,000 net VAT payable from the earlier example, if the 2550Q return is filed and paid 10 days late, the 25% surcharge alone adds ₱30,000, and 12% annual interest on ₱120,000 for 10 days adds roughly ₱395, before any compromise penalty. A ten-day delay can therefore add close to ₱30,400 to a ₱120,000 tax bill — a strong reason to build reminders around the 25th-of-the-month VAT and percentage tax deadlines, the monthly withholding cutoffs, and the January–April cluster of annual reports well before they arrive.

Because BIR deadlines, thresholds, and rates are revised through periodic Revenue Regulations and Revenue Memorandum Circulars, treat this calendar as a planning guide and reconfirm exact dates and figures on the BIR website each filing season.