Bureau of Internal Revenue(BIR)

September 5, 2023 Dear Mr. Laurenciano: I refer to my letter of Sep 04, 2023 06:18:28 PM about your request under Executive Order No. 2 (s. 2016) on Freedom of Information in the Executive Branch, for Income tax return copy. Please be informed that under Section 12. Section 2.83.1 of RR No. 2-98, as amended, is hereby further amended to read as follows: “SECTION 2.83.1. Employees Withholding Statements (BIR Form 2316). – In general, every employer or other person who is required to deduct and withhold the tax on compensation, including fringe benefits given to rank and file employees, shall furnish every employee from whom taxes were withheld a Certificate of Compensation Payment and Tax Withheld (BIR Form No. 2316) on or before January 31 of the succeeding calendar year, or if employment is terminated before the close of such calendar year, on the day on which the last payment of compensation is made. The said BIR Form No. 2316 is also required is also required to be issued by every employer to employees classified as MWEs and to other employees whose compensation were not subjected to withholding tax. The employer shall prepare BIR Form No. 2316 in triplicate, which shall be distributed as follows: (1) Original – Employee’s copy (2) Duplicate – BIR’s copy; and (3) Triplicate- Employer’s copy which shall be retained for a period of (10) years It is suggested and highly recommended that the aforesaid Withholding Tax Certificate (BIR Form 2316) was been provided by your employers to you after it was submitted to the Revenue District Office (RDO) and it is advisable if you maintained a file copy of the documents. You may directly request for a copy of your ITR (BIR Form 2316) from your (previous) employer/s as they are primary/original source of such document. * For BIR Form 2316 issued for Taxable Years 2011 to 2019 records of the RDO on those periods are already unavailable since we follow strictly the four (4) year retention period based on existing revenue issuances of the BIR (Revenue Memorandum Circular 73-2008). * For BIR Form 2316 issued for Taxable Year 2023 the RDO does not have a copy of the BIR Form. The RDO gets a hold of the said form upon submission of your employer to them on February 28, 2024. Email [email protected] and indicate in the subject email ticket number #BIR-0310127398467, to respond. During the period of us awaiting your reply, your request will be put on hold. If we do not receive a reply on or before Nov 28, 2023 05:03:16 AM, your request will be closed. We hope to hear from you at the soonest possible time. Thank you. Respectfully, Alternate FOI Receiving Officer Public Information and Education Division