Does BIR Excel Uploader Handle Government Money Payments (GMP) Withholding? What LGUs and NGAs Actually Need

Government money payment (GMP) withholding is not one withholding tax — it’s two, on the same disbursement. Every national government agency (NGA) and local government unit (LGU) that pays a supplier for goods or services must withhold a creditable income tax (1% or 2%) and a creditable VAT (5%) on that same payment, then issue a separate BIR Form 2307 for each. Whether a basic Excel-to-DAT converter is actually built for that dual structure — with the right government-specific ATC codes and enough certificate volume for an LGU’s or NGA’s full supplier list — is the question this guide answers.

What does GMP withholding actually require? #

GMP withholding means an LGU, NGA, or GOCC withholds two separate taxes — a 1%/2% creditable income tax and a 5% creditable VAT — on the same payment to a VAT-registered supplier, each documented on its own certificate. This guide covers the tool-comparison side: what a bulk Excel-to-DAT converter needs to support to keep up with that structure. For the underlying rule itself — who counts as a GMP withholding agent, the exact rates, and the legal basis — see BIR Form 2307 for Government Money Payments, which is the fuller explainer this post assumes as background.

In short: under Section 2.57.2(I) of Revenue Regulations No. 2-98, as amended, government withholding agents withhold 1% on purchases of goods and 2% on purchases of services from local suppliers. Separately, under Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 36-2021, implementing Section 37 of the TRAIN Law (Republic Act No. 10963), government offices withhold a further 5% creditable VAT on payments to VAT-registered suppliers, effective January 1, 2021, replacing what had been a final 5% VAT withholding before that date. Summarizing the circular’s operative instruction to government withholding agents, tax law firm Ocampo & Suralvo Law Offices describes the requirement this way:

“…shall issue the Certificate of Creditable Tax Withheld at Source (BIR Form No. 2307) using Alphanumeric Tax Code No. WV010 (for purchase of goods) or WV020 (for purchase of services).”

That single instruction is the operative link between the rate and the paperwork: a 5% withholding, on a specific ATC code, certified on BIR Form 2307 — not the final-tax BIR Form 2306 that governed this withholding before 2021.

Which ATC codes does a GMP filer need to see in the tool? #

A tool built for GMP withholding needs the government-specific ATC codes for both taxes, not just the general top-withholding-agent codes used by private companies. These are separate code families, and a spreadsheet template or dropdown that only carries the private-sector set leaves an LGU or NGA typing the correct code in by hand — or worse, filing under the wrong one.

A converter that only ships with the general withholding ATC list (the codes private top withholding agents use) does not automatically cover this table — GMP filers need to confirm their tool’s ATC options include these four codes specifically, and that the two withholdings can be entered as two line items against the same payee for the same transaction rather than forcing a single amount into a single row.

Does a basic Excel-to-DAT converter handle the dual withholding? #

A BIR Excel Uploader is, by its own public materials, an Excel-to-DAT converter built around RELIEF and Alphalist Data Entry submissions, with separate pages for printing BIR Form 2307 and BIR Form 2316 — see Does BIR Excel Uploader Support QAP or SAWT? for the full breakdown of what its listings describe. Nothing in that feature set is described as purpose-built for the government withholding categories specifically — GMP’s dual 1%/2% plus 5% structure, and its own ATC code family, is a narrower requirement than a general RELIEF/Alphalist/2307 converter is designed to solve.

That distinction matters in practice for an LGU or NGA disbursing officer:

• A general BIR Form 2307 template usually assumes one withholding per payee row — it wasn’t built with a second, VAT-specific withholding line in mind for the same transaction, so entering both often means adding a row manually rather than the tool prompting for it.
• A general ATC dropdown may not surface the WC640/WI640/WC157/WI157/WV010/WV020 codes used specifically for government purchases — if the field only accepts free text, there’s also no validation catching a typo against the wrong code family.
• A converter scoped to RELIEF, Alphalist, and general 2307/2316 printing has no obvious reason to track which supplier rows need the VAT withholding on top of the income tax withholding — that logic (VAT-registered supplier, GMP payment) sits outside a general-purpose converter’s job.

None of this means a basic Excel-to-DAT converter is broken for the jobs it’s built for — RELIEF, Alphalist, and single- or bulk-certificate printing from a template are real, described features. It means GMP’s dual-withholding, government-ATC-code structure is a narrower requirement that a general-purpose converter typically isn’t scoped to handle out of the box, and an LGU or NGA should check for it explicitly rather than assume it.

Worked example: an LGU pays a construction contractor ₱1,000,000 #

Suppose a municipality’s engineering office pays a VAT-registered construction contractor ₱1,000,000 for a completed government infrastructure project — classified as a services payment for withholding purposes. The accounting office computes:

The municipality issues two BIR Form 2307 certificates: one for the ₱20,000 income tax withheld and one for the ₱50,000 VAT withheld. It’s worth being precise here because the two-certificate rule is easy to get wrong: before RMC No. 36-2021 took effect, the 5% VAT withholding on government payments was a final tax and would have gone on BIR Form 2306 (Certificate of Final Tax Withheld at Source) — see BIR Form 2307 or Form 2306? for how the final-vs-creditable distinction generally decides which certificate applies. Since RMC No. 36-2021 made the government VAT withholding creditable, both certificates for this contractor are now BIR Form 2307, just under different ATC codes.

The contractor uses both: the ₱20,000 to credit against income tax due on its own return, and the ₱50,000 to credit against its output VAT for the quarter on BIR Form 2550Q.

Why volume is the real constraint for an LGU or NGA #

A single worked example is manageable by hand — a real disbursement period for an LGU or NGA usually isn’t. A city engineering office, a national line agency, or a GOCC’s procurement unit can be paying dozens of contractors, suppliers, and service providers within one payment run, and every qualifying payment to a VAT-registered supplier produces up to two certificates. That’s the same bulk-generation problem covered in BIR Excel Uploader Alternative for Bulk BIR Form 2307 Certificate Generation — a converter that only issues one certificate at a time from a form, or one that bulk-generates but assumes a single withholding per row, doesn’t scale to a GMP disbursement run without manual rework outside the tool.

For a GMP filer, the practical checklist for a bulk tool is:

• Can it hold both the income tax ATC and the VAT ATC for the same payee on the same disbursement, rather than one field per row?
• Does its ATC list include the government-specific codes (WC640/WI640, WC157/WI157, WV010, WV020) so they don’t have to be typed in free-text per row?
• Can it generate a full batch of BIR Form 2307 PDFs — both certificates per qualifying supplier — from one upload, instead of one certificate per manual entry?

Frequently asked questions #

Does a basic Excel-to-DAT converter handle GMP’s dual withholding automatically? #

Not necessarily. GMP withholding requires computing and certifying two separate taxes on the same payment — a 1% or 2% creditable income tax and a 5% creditable VAT — under two different ATC code families. A converter built around a single generic withholding template may not carry both sets of government-specific ATC codes or produce both certificates without manual rework.

What ATC codes does an LGU or NGA need for GMP withholding? #

For creditable income tax: WC640/WI640 for goods and WC157/WI157 for services. For creditable VAT: WV010 for goods and WV020 for services. These are distinct from the ATC codes used by private-sector top withholding agents, so a tool’s ATC list needs to include the government-specific codes, not just the general ones.

Is the VAT withheld on government payments certified on BIR Form 2306 or BIR Form 2307? #

BIR Form 2307. Before January 1, 2021, the 5% VAT withholding on government sales was a final tax and would have used BIR Form 2306, but Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 36-2021 converted it to a creditable withholding, so it is now certified on BIR Form 2307 like the income tax withholding, under ATC WV010 or WV020.

How many BIR Form 2307 certificates does an LGU issue per supplier payment? #

Up to two per payment to a VAT-registered supplier: one for the 1%/2% creditable income tax and one for the 5% creditable VAT. An LGU or NGA paying dozens of suppliers in a single period can generate well over a hundred certificates from that period’s disbursements alone.

Why does supplier volume matter for an LGU’s or NGA’s choice of filing tool? #

A single agency, city, or municipality can have a large accredited supplier and contractor list, and every qualifying disbursement produces a paper trail. A tool limited to one certificate at a time, or to only one of the two required withholdings, turns a routine disbursement period into a manual reconciliation exercise across dozens or hundreds of transactions.

Summary #

GMP withholding is a narrower, dual-tax requirement layered on top of general BIR Form 2307 filing: a 1%/2% creditable income tax plus a 5% creditable VAT, both withheld by the same LGU, NGA, or GOCC on the same payment, both now certified on BIR Form 2307 under their own ATC codes since RMC No. 36-2021. A general-purpose Excel-to-DAT converter’s described feature set doesn’t obviously cover that government-specific structure, and at the supplier volume an LGU or NGA disbursement period involves, checking for it explicitly — before a payment run, not during one — is worth the few minutes it takes. See BIR Form 2307 for Government Money Payments for the full rate and rule breakdown behind this comparison.