Penalty for Filing BIR Form 1601-EQ Late: Surcharge, Interest, and Compromise, Q3 2026 Worked Example

Filing BIR Form 1601-EQ — the Quarterly Remittance Return of Creditable Income Taxes Withheld (Expanded) — after its deadline does not cost a single flat fee. It stacks three separate charges on top of the expanded withholding tax itself: a 25% surcharge under NIRC Section 248, interest under Section 249 that runs for every day the payment is late, and a suggested compromise penalty from RMO No. 7-2015’s Annex A schedule. This post works one concrete Q3 2026 scenario — a withholding agent filing 15 days past the actual deadline — through all three, to a peso-exact total.

What penalties apply when BIR Form 1601-EQ is filed late? #

A late BIR Form 1601-EQ exposes a withholding agent to the same general late-filing penalty framework that applies across BIR returns: a Section 248 surcharge, Section 249 interest, and a separate RMO No. 7-2015 compromise penalty — there is no 1601-EQ-specific penalty schedule. For how the form itself works — who files it, how it relates to the monthly BIR Form 0619-E remittances, and the standard deadline — see BIR Form 1601-EQ: How to File the Quarterly Expanded Withholding Tax Return; this post applies the general penalty rates specifically and numerically to one late quarterly filing.

The three layers do different jobs:

• Surcharge (NIRC Section 248) — a civil penalty of 25% of the tax due for ordinary late filing, rising to 50% for willful neglect or a false/fraudulent return.
• Interest (NIRC Section 249) — civil interest that accrues daily on the unpaid tax, currently 12% per annum (double the BSP legal rate) under Revenue Regulations No. 21-2018.
• Compromise penalty (RMO No. 7-2015) — a suggested, consensual amount tied to a bracket table keyed to unpaid tax, paid separately as an alternative to criminal referral under Section 255.

NIRC Section 248(A) itself sets out the surcharge in language that reads:

“There shall be imposed, in addition to the tax required to be paid, a penalty equivalent to twenty-five percent (25%) of the amount due, in the following cases: (1) Failure to file any return and pay the tax due thereon as required under the provisions of this Code or rules and regulations on the date prescribed…”

— National Internal Revenue Code, Section 248(A)

Why does the Q3 2026 deadline fall on November 3, not October 31? #

BIR Form 1601-EQ is due on or before the last day of the month following the close of the taxable quarter, which puts the statutory Q3 2026 (July–September) due date at October 31, 2026 — but that calendar date is a Saturday, and the two non-working days immediately after it push the actual deadline three days later. Sunday, November 1, 2026 is All Saints’ Day, and Monday, November 2, 2026 is a separately declared additional special non-working day under Proclamation No. 1006. Under Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 65-2016’s next-working-day rule, a deadline landing on consecutive non-working days walks forward to the first genuine working day after them.

A withholding agent who assumes the deadline simply “moves to Monday” after a Saturday due date would wrongly treat November 2 as the cutoff — it is not, because it is itself a declared non-working day. Treating October 31 as the deadline is just as wrong in the other direction: the surcharge and interest below attach from November 3, 2026, not from the unmoved weekend date.

The scenario: ₱45,000 in expanded withholding tax, filed 15 days late #

A withholding agent with ₱45,000 in net expanded withholding tax due for Q3 2026 — after crediting the two monthly BIR Form 0619-E remittances already paid for July and August — files and pays BIR Form 1601-EQ on November 18, 2026, fifteen days after the actual November 3, 2026 deadline, with no fraud and no prior BIR notice involved.

Step 1: computing the Section 248 surcharge #

NIRC Section 248 adds a civil surcharge of 25% of the tax due whenever a return is filed and paid late without willful neglect or fraud — a flat percentage that does not depend on how many days late the return is. On ₱45,000 in expanded withholding tax due, the surcharge is a straightforward multiplication with no proration for time.

₱45,000 × 25% = ₱11,250

Had this instead been a case of willful neglect or a false return, Section 248(B) would apply the 50% rate instead, doubling this figure to ₱22,500 — but nothing in this scenario suggests either.

Step 2: computing the Section 249 interest #

Unlike the surcharge, Section 249 interest is time-sensitive: it runs on the unpaid tax at 12% per annum (double the BSP legal rate, per Revenue Regulations No. 21-2018) for the exact number of days between the actual deadline and the date of payment. Because the agent paid 15 days late, the interest computation prorates the 12% annual rate down to that 15-day window.

₱45,000 × 12% × (15 ÷ 365) = ≈ ₱222

This amount grows the longer the return stays unfiled and unpaid — it is simple interest on the unpaid basic tax, not interest compounding on interest, so it keeps climbing with each additional day rather than accelerating.

Step 3: the RMO No. 7-2015 compromise penalty #

Separate from the civil surcharge and interest, RMO No. 7-2015’s Annex A schedule suggests a compromise penalty in lieu of criminal referral under Section 255, keyed to how much tax was left unpaid. With ₱45,000 in unpaid expanded withholding tax, the scenario falls in the ₱20,001–₱50,000 bracket of the schedule’s unpaid-tax table.

This ₱10,000 is billed and paid on a separate BIR Form 0605 from the surcharge-and-interest payment. Because the compromise is consensual, refusing it exposes the filer to criminal referral rather than a forced ₱10,000 civil charge — see BIR Form 1604-C and 1604-E Penalty for Late Filing for how this same compromise layer applies to a different type of BIR return that likewise consolidates withholding activity, and BIR Form 2551Q Late Filing Penalty for the identical three-layer mechanic applied to a non-VAT percentage tax return instead. For the broader registration and invoicing compromise schedule, which is a separate table from the one used here, see BIR Compromise Penalty Table for Registration, Receipts, and Invoicing Violations.

The full worked example #

Adding the basic tax to all three charges gives the actual out-of-pocket cost of filing this ₱45,000 quarterly withholding remittance 15 days late: roughly ₱66,472, of which ₱21,472 is penalty on top of the tax itself. The table below lays out every component with a running total.

Filing 15 days late turned a ₱45,000 obligation into roughly ₱66,472 — a 48% increase driven mostly by the flat 25% surcharge and the ₱10,000 compromise, with the time-based interest the smallest of the three components at this length of delay. A qualifying micro or small taxpayer under RR No. 6-2024 would see a lower total: a 10% surcharge (₱4,500) and half-rate interest (≈₱111) on the Section 248/249 side, since that regulation’s 50% compromise discount does not extend to the Section 255 filing/payment compromise table used here, bringing the Section 248/249 portion down to roughly ₱4,611 instead of ₱11,472, before adding the full ₱10,000 compromise.

How to avoid this next quarter #

The cheapest fix to a penalty bill like this one is not paying it faster — it is not incurring it at all, which means treating the actual, holiday-adjusted deadline as a hard cutoff rather than approximating from “the last day of the month.” A few habits close most of the gap that leads to late BIR Form 1601-EQ filings:

1. Confirm each quarter’s actual working-day deadline in advance rather than assuming it is simply the last calendar day of the month after the quarter — weekends and declared holidays routinely shift it, sometimes by several days.
2. Reconcile the two prior BIR Form 0619-E remittances against the quarter’s full withholding register as soon as the third month closes, rather than waiting until deadline week.
3. File through eFPS or eBIRForms even when the net amount due looks small, since a missed filing still counts as late regardless of how small the resulting remittance turns out to be.
4. If a deadline is genuinely at risk, file with the best available withholding figures on time and amend later — a timely, imperfect return avoids the surcharge that a late, accurate one does not.

Reconciling the underlying payee-level detail against the Quarterly Alphalist of Payees before filing also catches mismatches that would otherwise surface later as a separate correction; see BIR Form 1601-EQ: How to File the Quarterly Expanded Withholding Tax Return for that reconciliation step.

Frequently asked questions #

How much is the penalty for filing BIR Form 1601-EQ late? #

Filing BIR Form 1601-EQ late stacks three separate charges on top of the expanded withholding tax actually due: a 25% surcharge under NIRC Section 248, interest of 12% per annum under Section 249 computed only for the days the payment is late, and a suggested compromise penalty from RMO No. 7-2015’s Annex A schedule keyed to the amount of unpaid tax. There is no flat “1601-EQ late filing fee” — the total depends on the withholding tax remitted for the quarter and the number of days late.

When is BIR Form 1601-EQ actually due for the third quarter of 2026? #

The statutory due date is the last day of the month following the close of the quarter, which is October 31, 2026 for Q3 (July–September 2026). October 31, 2026 falls on a Saturday, and the two days after it — Sunday, November 1 (All Saints’ Day) and Monday, November 2 (an additional special non-working day under Proclamation No. 1006) — are both non-working, so under Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 65-2016’s next-working-day rule the actual deadline walks forward to Tuesday, November 3, 2026.

Does the surcharge apply if my net remittance for the quarter is zero? #

The 25% surcharge under Section 248 is computed on the tax actually due and remitted with the return, so a BIR Form 1601-EQ with zero net tax due after crediting the two prior BIR Form 0619-E payments generates no surcharge or interest amount to compute on the return itself. The return is still required to be filed on time regardless of the net amount, and a missed filing can still draw BIR attention as an open case even when nothing further is owed for the quarter.

Does the Section 249 interest keep compounding the longer I wait? #

No, it does not compound in the sense of interest accruing on interest. Section 249 interest runs at a simple 12% per annum rate, prorated for the exact number of days the tax remains unpaid, applied to the unpaid basic tax. The surcharge, by contrast, is a one-time 25% (or 50%) charge that does not grow with time — only the interest component increases the longer the return stays unfiled and unpaid.

Is the RMO No. 7-2015 compromise penalty the same as the surcharge? #

No. The 25% surcharge and 12% annual interest are civil additions to the tax itself under NIRC Sections 248 and 249, and they attach automatically once BIR Form 1601-EQ is filed or paid late. The RMO No. 7-2015 compromise penalty is a separate, consensual amount the BIR suggests in lieu of pursuing criminal action under Section 255 for the same late filing — it does not replace the surcharge or interest, and it is billed and paid on its own BIR Form 0605.

Summary #

A ₱45,000 BIR Form 1601-EQ filed 15 days past the actual November 3, 2026 deadline costs roughly ₱66,472 once the 25% Section 248 surcharge (₱11,250), Section 249 interest at 12% per annum (≈₱222 for 15 days), and the RMO No. 7-2015 compromise penalty (₱10,000 for this unpaid-tax bracket) are added to the basic expanded withholding tax. None of these three are optional or interchangeable — surcharge and interest attach automatically as civil additions, while the compromise is a separate, consensual amount tied to Section 255’s criminal exposure. The deadline itself is just as easy to get wrong as the penalty math: for Q3 2026, the real cutoff is November 3, not October 31, because of the Saturday due date and the two holidays that immediately follow it. For the filing mechanics that keep a 1601-EQ from reaching this point, see BIR Form 1601-EQ: How to File the Quarterly Expanded Withholding Tax Return; for how the same three-layer penalty framework plays out on a different return, see BIR Form 1604-C and 1604-E Penalty for Late Filing and BIR Form 2551Q Late Filing Penalty. New to this site’s BIR coverage? Start with Start Here. Confirm your specific figures and any applicable micro/small reduction with your RDO or the BIR before paying.