Availability of enhanced BIR Forms 1601-EQ and new 1602Q

Availability of enhanced BIR Forms 1601-EQ and new 1602Q

(Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 139-2019)

This Tax Alert is issued to inform all concerned on the newly issued BIR Form 1602Q and enhanced BIR Form 1601-EQ, in relation to the implementation of the TRAIN Law (RA 10963).

The newly issued BIR Form 1602Q shall be used by banks and other institutions in remitting their quarterly final taxes withheld on interest paid on deposits and yield or any other monetary benefit from deposit substitutes and from trust fund and similar arrangements.

The BIR Form 1601-EQ was revised due to some changes in the rate of creditable withholding tax on MERALCO payments and interest income on all other debt instruments not within the coverage of deposit substitutes (i.e. from 32%/20% to 15%).

The new/enhanced returns are already available manually and can be downloaded from the BIR website. However, this is not yet available in the Electronic BIR Form (eBIRForm) and Electronic Filing and Payment System (EFPS). Thus, eFPS/eBIRForms filers shall use the existing version of BIR Forms l601-EQ and 1602 in the eFPS, and existing version of BIR Form No. 1602Q in the Offline eBlRForms Package v7.5 in filing and remitting taxes due thereon.