What Is BIR Form 1601-C and How Do You File Monthly Withholding Tax on Compensation?
BIR Form 1601-C is the Monthly Remittance Return of Income Taxes Withheld on Compensation, filed by every employer withholding tax from employees’ salaries, wages, and other compensation. Employers compute withholding each pay period using the graduated withholding tax table under NIRC Section 24(A), as amended by the TRAIN Law (RA No. 10963), then remit the total withheld for the month using this form.
Keep Your Employee Alphalist Audit-Ready FREE →Who must file BIR Form 1601-C? #
Any employer — individual, partnership, or corporation — that pays compensation subject to withholding tax must file BIR Form 1601-C monthly, whether or not tax was actually withheld that month. This includes businesses with even a single rank-and-file or managerial employee on payroll, not just large companies with dedicated payroll departments.
Withholding is computed on taxable compensation: gross salary and taxable allowances and bonuses, less mandatory contributions (SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG) and any exempt de minimis benefits. The withheld amount is a creditable tax — it reduces the employee’s eventual annual income tax due, reported at year-end on BIR Form 2316.
When is BIR Form 1601-C due? #
The deadline depends on how the employer files, and missing it triggers the same surcharge and interest exposure as any other late BIR return.
| Filer type | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Non-eFPS (manual/eBIRForms) | On or before the 10th day of the month following the month of withholding |
| eFPS filers | Staggered by industry group, generally the 11th–15th of the following month per the BIR’s eFPS filing schedule |
| December withholding (all filers) | Often falls on a January due date in the following year — check the annual BIR tax calendar |
Under the Ease of Paying Taxes Act (RA No. 11976), employers are no longer locked into filing and paying at the Revenue District Office (RDO) that has jurisdiction over their registration. Returns and payments can now go through any Authorized Agent Bank, any RDO’s Revenue Collection Officer, or electronically — the “file and pay anywhere” reform that replaced the old wrong-venue penalty regime.
A worked example #
A small business with three rank-and-file employees withholds a combined ₱18,500 in income tax from June salaries based on the graduated withholding table. By July 10 (the non-eFPS deadline), the employer files BIR Form 1601-C for June and remits the ₱18,500 through any Authorized Agent Bank under the EOPT Act’s file-anywhere rule. That ₱18,500 becomes part of the creditable withholding tax reflected on each employee’s BIR Form 2316 at year-end, and the same figures feed into the employer’s BIR Form 1604-C annual alphalist reconciliation.
How does 1601-C connect to year-end reporting? #
Every month’s 1601-C remittance should reconcile against the cumulative withholding shown on each employee’s BIR Form 2316 and the employer’s annual BIR Form 1604-C alphalist. A mismatch between monthly 1601-C totals and the year-end alphalist is one of the more common BIR audit flags for payroll compliance, since both are meant to describe the same withholding activity from two different angles — monthly remittance versus annual reconciliation.
See BIR Annual Alphalist (1604-C, 1604-E, 1604-F) for how the year-end reconciliation works, and What Is BIR Form 2316 and When Must You Issue It? for the employee-facing certificate that mirrors this withholding.
Summary #
BIR Form 1601-C is the monthly return employers use to remit income tax withheld from compensation, generally due on the 10th of the following month for non-eFPS filers, with staggered eFPS deadlines and file-anywhere flexibility under the EOPT Act. Getting the monthly figures right sets up an easier year-end reconciliation on BIR Form 1604-C and BIR Form 2316.