BIR Form 2307 for Translators and Interpreters: Which Withholding Rate Applies

A business that pays a freelance translator, interpreter, or transcriptionist for professional-language services withholds 5% or 10% expanded withholding tax on the fee — the same professional-fee bands that apply to any other individual professional under Revenue Regulations (RR) No. 11-2018. There is no special language-services carve-out; the rate turns on the freelancer’s sworn declaration, not the service type. The withholding agent then issues BIR Form 2307 to the freelancer as proof of tax withheld.

This guide is part of the BIR Form 2307 series. It covers the applicable rates and ATC codes, why translators and interpreters are treated as ordinary professionals rather than a special category, how the picture changes when a freelancer is booked through a language-services agency instead of billing the client directly, and a worked example for a freelance court interpreter.

Who withholds tax on a translator or interpreter’s fee? #

Any business or individual engaged in business or the practice of a profession that pays a freelance translator, interpreter, or transcriptionist for language services is a withholding agent on that payment — a law firm paying a court interpreter, a hospital paying a medical interpreter, a corporate client paying a business translator, or an event organizer paying a conference interpreter.

Common engagements include:

• Legal interpretation for depositions, hearings, or client consultations
• Medical interpretation between a patient and healthcare providers
• Business or technical document translation for contracts, manuals, or financial reports
• Conference or event simultaneous/consecutive interpretation
• Audio or video transcription, including subtitling and captioning work

Whoever pays the freelancer directly withholds tax before releasing payment and issues BIR Form 2307 to that freelancer for the amount withheld.

What withholding tax rate applies to a translator, interpreter, or transcriptionist? #

A freelance translator, interpreter, or transcriptionist paid directly by a client is subject to the same 5%/10% professional-fee bands under RR No. 11-2018 that apply to consultants, marketing professionals, and other individually engaged specialists. Nothing in the regulation singles out language services for a different rate or a different rate-setting test.

Both conditions for the 5% individual rate must hold — gross income within the ₱3,000,000 threshold and non-VAT registration. If either fails, or if the client has no valid sworn declaration on file for the freelancer, the higher 10% rate applies. For the full mechanics of these thresholds and the corporate bands, see BIR Form 2307 for Professional Fees.

Why translators and interpreters aren’t a special category #

RR No. 11-2018’s professional-fee bracket is built around payee type and income level, not a fixed list of professions, so it reaches translation and interpretation work the same way it reaches any other individually rendered technical service. The category is illustrative rather than exhaustive, grouping services rendered in the exercise of a profession or a specialized skill, whether or not the payee holds a Professional Regulation Commission license — the same treatment already applied to consultants without a PRC license.

A translator’s freelance status matters more than a professional license does. Whether a freelancer is a sworn court interpreter accredited by a court, a medical interpreter without formal certification, or a transcriptionist working project-to-project, the withholding test is the same: income level and VAT status decide the rate, not the specific language-services role, and no separate ATC code exists for it.

Which ATC code applies? #

The Alphanumeric Tax Code (ATC) on BIR Form 2307 encodes the payee type and applicable rate — translators, interpreters, and transcriptionists use the same codes as any other individual professional.

Using the wrong ATC either under- or over-withholds the payment and is one of the common BIR Form 2307 mistakes that surfaces when the payee’s certificate fails to match the withholding agent’s own alphalist submission.

Freelancer billing the client directly vs. working through a language-services agency #

Who withholds tax — and who receives the BIR Form 2307 — depends on who is actually paid, not on who performs the language work. A translator or interpreter can reach a client through two different arrangements, and each one puts the withholding obligation on a different payment:

1. Direct billing. The freelancer invoices the client directly for the interpretation or translation project. The client withholds 5% or 10% (ATC WI010 or WI011) on the freelancer’s fee, based on the freelancer’s own sworn declaration, and issues BIR Form 2307 to the freelancer.
2. Booked through an agency. A language-services agency contracts with the client, bills the client for the project, and separately pays the freelancer as its own subcontractor or affiliated linguist. The client withholds on its payment to the agency, not to the freelancer — at the corporate professional-fee rate (ATC WC010 or WC011) if the agency is organized as a corporation, or at the individual rate if the agency is a sole proprietorship. The client’s BIR Form 2307 names the agency as payee. The agency, when it pays the freelancer their share, becomes the withholding agent on that internal payment and issues its own separate BIR Form 2307 to the freelancer.

The practical effect: a freelancer working through an agency generally receives a BIR Form 2307 from the agency, not from the end client, and only for the portion the agency actually pays out to them — the agency’s own margin is never reflected on the freelancer’s certificate. A freelancer should confirm which arrangement applies before assuming who owes them a certificate, since it directly affects the creditable withholding tax they can claim.

Worked example: a court interpreter’s project fee #

Suppose a law firm engages a freelance court interpreter for a two-day deposition, billed at a project fee of ₱35,000.

Scenario A — direct billing, sworn declaration on file. The interpreter submitted an Income Payee’s Sworn Declaration of Gross Receipts/Sales confirming her gross income for the year has not exceeded ₱3,000,000 and that she is non-VAT registered, so ATC WI010 at 5% applies.

The law firm pays the interpreter ₱33,250 in cash, remits the ₱1,750 withheld through BIR Form 0619-E monthly and BIR Form 1601-EQ quarterly, and issues BIR Form 2307 to the interpreter showing ₱35,000 as the income payment, ATC WI010, and ₱1,750 as tax withheld.

Scenario B — same fee, no sworn declaration on file. If the interpreter had never submitted the sworn declaration, the law firm would default to ATC WI011 at 10%, withholding ₱3,500 instead of ₱1,750 and paying out ₱31,500 net — a lower cash amount even though the interpreter’s actual annual tax liability is unchanged, since the extra ₱1,750 is still creditable when she files her income tax return.

Scenario C — booked through an agency instead. Suppose the same deposition is instead arranged through “Manila Language Partners, Inc.,” a corporate language-services agency with gross income for the year under ₱720,000. The law firm pays the agency ₱35,000, withholding 10% (ATC WC010) — ₱3,500 — and issues its BIR Form 2307 to the agency, not the interpreter. The agency then pays the interpreter her ₱25,000 share of that engagement; if she has a sworn declaration on file with the agency, the agency withholds 5% (ATC WI010) on that ₱25,000 — ₱1,250 — and issues its own separate BIR Form 2307 to her for that amount. The law firm’s certificate and the agency’s certificate cover two different payments to two different payees.

Frequently asked questions #

What withholding tax rate applies to a freelance translator or interpreter under BIR Form 2307? #

A freelance translator, interpreter, or transcriptionist paid directly by a client is subject to the same professional-fee expanded withholding tax bands as any other individual professional under Revenue Regulations No. 11-2018: 5% if their gross income for the current year does not exceed ₱3,000,000 and they are non-VAT registered, or 10% if it exceeds ₱3,000,000 or they are VAT-registered.

Do translators and interpreters get a special ATC code, or do they use the same one as other professionals? #

There is no dedicated ATC code for language services. Translators, interpreters, and transcriptionists fall under the general individual professional-fee codes — WI010 at 5% or WI011 at 10% — the same codes used for consultants, marketing professionals, and other individually engaged specialists, because BIR Form 2307’s ATC structure classifies by payee type and income level, not by profession.

How does withholding differ when a translator works through a language-services agency instead of billing the client directly? #

When a translator bills the client directly, the client withholds on the translator’s own fee and issues BIR Form 2307 to the translator. When a translator is engaged through a language-services agency that bills the client, the client instead withholds on its payment to the agency, and the agency — if it in turn pays the translator as its own subcontractor — separately withholds and issues its own BIR Form 2307 to the translator on that internal payment.

Does a translator need to file a sworn declaration to get the 5% rate? #

Yes. An individual translator or interpreter claims the lower 5% rate the same way any other individual professional does — by submitting an Income Payee’s Sworn Declaration of Gross Receipts/Sales, together with a copy of their BIR Certificate of Registration, to each income payor. Without a valid declaration on file, the payor should withhold at the higher 10% rate.

Who issues the BIR Form 2307 — the end client or the agency — when a translator works through an agency? #

Only whoever pays the translator directly issues a BIR Form 2307 to them. If the end client pays the agency and the agency pays the translator, the client issues its BIR Form 2307 to the agency (not the translator), and the agency issues a separate BIR Form 2307 to the translator for the amount it withheld on the translator’s own share.

Summary #

A freelance translator, interpreter, or transcriptionist is withheld under the same professional-fee rules as any other individual professional — 5% with a sworn declaration on file, 10% without one, using ATC WI010 or WI011 — because RR No. 11-2018 has no separate category for language services. The only thing that changes the picture is the billing structure: direct billing puts the withholding obligation and the BIR Form 2307 on the client, while booking through a language-services agency shifts the client’s withholding to the agency (at the corporate WC010/WC011 rate) and creates a second, separate withholding step when the agency pays the freelancer. For the underlying rate mechanics, see BIR Form 2307 for Professional Fees and BIR Sworn Declaration for Lower Withholding.