As the year comes to a close and as everyone becomes busy with Christmas shopping, now is a good time to revisit the top ten tax-related considerations before you close the books of the calendar year.  After all, sweating them now will give you (or us!) better opportunities to avoid the long queues when the business renewal comes in January.

Or better yet, allow us to give you a leg up for all these  so you can relax even in the busiest season of the year.  We are making the list and are checking it twice for you. So, no worries!

  1. BIR Annual Registration Fee. As the name suggests, this is an annual thing and is best accomplished before January 31.
  1. LGU Registration (Renewal). Also done once a year, and as appropriate, it may include the payment of local business tax, mayor’s permit fee, sanitary inspection fee, garbage fee, building inspection fee, electrical inspection fee, mechanical inspection fee, plumbing inspection fee, fire inspection fee, personnel fee, business plate registration fee, and other fees which may be required by the city or municipality. Oops, if that list is going to worry you, then you can leave the filing to us.
  1. BIR Form 2316 (Certificate of Compensation Payment/Tax Withheld). If you have employees whom you have paid salaries to during the year, you also have withheld portions of their salary for their prescribed compensation income tax for the benefit of the BIR. The withholding statement or BIR Form 2316 should be provided to the employees on or before January 31 of the succeeding calendar year.
  1. Duplicate Copy of BIR Form 2316 (RR 11-2013). A duplicate copy of No. 3 shall be submitted to the BIR on or before February 28 following the close of the calendar year. Non-submission may cause penalty.
  1. BIR Form 1604-CF (Annual Information Return of Income Taxes Withheld on Compensation). This form includes the alphabetical list (alphalist) of employees/payees from whom taxes were withheld. (This is like a list of all the Form 2316 you issued.) Deadline of submission to the BIR is on January 31 of the year following the calendar year in which the compensation payment and other income payments subject to final withholding taxes were paid or accrued. For instance, those pertaining to the calendar year ending December 31, 2015, the submission shall be on or before January 31, 2016. Non-submission of this could result in the disallowance of the related expense as a deduction for the taxable income of your business.
  1. Monthly Tax Returns. This pertains to the regular filing of withholding taxes (on income payments subject to final tax, expanded withholding tax, and compensation tax) for the month of December. Deadline is January 15; but for EFPS-filers, date for filing is based on the industry grouping.
  1. Quarterly Tax Returns. This refers to quarterly value-added tax (VAT) return and fringe benefits tax (FBT) return. Deadline is on January 25 (for VAT) and January 10 (for FBT). For EFPS-filers, FBT returns should be filed on or before January 15.
  1. Books of Accounts. These are where your financial business transactions are recorded and must be registered with the BIR. They may be any of the three:
  • [Manual Books] Previously registered manual books that have not yet been fully utilized can still be used in the succeeding years without the need for re-stamping. You just have to label the pages appropriately for monitoring. Hence, a new set of books shall be registered only when the previously registered books have been fully utilized.
  • [Loose Leaf Books of Accounts] BIR requires the registration of permanently bound computer-generated books of accounts. Deadline is on January 15.
  • [Computerized Books of Accounts] BIR requires registration of Computerized Books of Accounts and Other Accounting Records in CD-R, DVD-R or other optical media properly labelled as required. Deadline is on January 30.
  1. Inventory List. Do you sell goods you buy or manufacture? This is for you, too. Inventory list of stock-in-trade, raw materials, goods in process, supplies, and other goods should be submitted not later than 30 days after the close of the taxable year. For instance, if your accounting period ends on December 31, 2015, you should file the said list not later than January 30, 2016.
  1. Professional Advice. You may wish to add your learning on these matters. There are seminars out there which you may want to attend. Simply select wisely.

With all that you have to attend to, we can understand why these taxing preparations should be taken out of your plate. Leave the worrying to a professional accountant, contact one now.