29 October 2026 · Bureau of Internal Revenue

BIR extends the quarterly VAT and percentage tax deadline

The Bureau of Internal Revenue issued Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 115-2026 on 26 October 2026, moving the deadline for BIR Form No. 2550Q and BIR Form No. 2551Q, and for the submission of their required attachments, from 26 October 2026 to 29 October 2026. The stated reason is the unavailability of the Electronic Filing and Payment System.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue issued Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 115-2026 on 26 October 2026. The circular moves the deadline for filing and paying two quarterly returns, and for submitting their required attachments, from 26 October 2026 to 29 October 2026. The reason given in the text is the unavailability of the Electronic Filing and Payment System (EFPS). The circular states that it takes effect immediately.

What the extension covers

The circular names two returns, and the attachments that go with them:

• BIR Form No. 2550Q, the Quarterly Value-Added Tax Return.
• BIR Form No. 2551Q, the Quarterly Percentage Tax Return.

The two returns are alternatives rather than companions. A business registered for VAT files the 2550Q. A business outside the VAT system files the 2551Q. A foreign-owned entity incorporated in the Philippines sits on one side or the other according to its BIR registration, and the extended date applies to whichever of the two it files.

The penalty position

The text is short and leaves little room for reading. Filings and payments within the extended deadline are made without the imposition of penalties. That relief is tied to the date: a filing or payment after 29 October 2026 falls outside the circular, and nothing in the text carries the waiver forward.

The circular also does not change what is due. It moves a date, and the tax itself is calculated on the same quarter, at the same rates, with the same deductions and input tax as before. Anyone reading it as a reduction or a deferral of the tax owed is reading a procedural relief as a substantive one.

What it does not reach

Only the two forms are named. The circular says nothing about monthly withholding returns, income tax returns, or any other filing that falls in the same period, and it does not announce a general suspension of deadlines at the Bureau. A taxpayer who treats it as an extension for every obligation in the calendar takes a late filing on a return the circular never mentions. Where the EFPS outage affected a different form, the answer is a separate issuance, not this one.

What to keep on file

File and pay within 29 October 2026, and keep the EFPS confirmation or acknowledgment with the return. If a notice of late filing, a discrepancy letter or a compromise assessment arrives months later, the useful file is the acknowledgment number, the payment reference and a copy of RMC No. 115-2026. The circular is the reason the date moved. The acknowledgment is the proof that the obligation was met inside it.

One further point for a business whose books are prepared abroad and signed locally: the filing date is set by the Bureau, not by the date the accounts are finalised. An extension of three days buys time to file, not time to close the quarter.

Why this is in the note log

The directory tracks changes to fees, deadlines and required documents. A moved deadline falls in the second category, and it is the only kind of change that expires on the day it is published. The circular is dated 26 October 2026, it was issued because a government system was unavailable, and it closes on 29 October 2026.

Nothing in the circular suggests a longer relief, an instalment arrangement or a change to the quarterly filing calendar for the quarters that follow. The next quarterly deadlines stand as published elsewhere, and this note does not move them.