Does BIR Form 2316 Still Need the Employee's Signature?
Yes — BIR Form 2316 needs the employee’s signature again. Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 29-2024, issued February 26, 2024, reversed the pandemic-era exception under RMC No. 18-2021 that had let employers submit the certificate with only the employer’s signature. If you’ve seen older articles saying the BIR “still accepts” BIR Form 2316 without the employee’s signature, that described a relief that no longer applies.
Generate a Compliant BIR Form 2316 FREE →Why do search results on this topic seem to contradict each other? #
Older tax-alert headlines say the BIR “still accepts” BIR Form 2316 without the employee’s signature; newer ones say the opposite. Both are accurate for their own moment — the first describes the RMC No. 18-2021 pandemic relief while it was in force, the second describes its reversal by RMC No. 29-2024 on February 26, 2024.
RMC No. 18-2021, issued February 2, 2021, let employers submit BIR Form 2316 to the BIR without the employee’s own signature — as long as the employer’s authorized representative signed it — citing limitations the COVID-19 pandemic placed on collecting in-person signatures, particularly for employees qualified for substituted filing. That relief was in effect for roughly three tax filing seasons. RMC No. 29-2024 ended it: employers preparing this year’s certificates are working under the reinstated rule, not the 2021 exception, no matter what an older article’s headline says.
What does RMC No. 29-2024 actually require? #
RMC No. 29-2024 requires both the employer’s authorized representative and the employee to sign BIR Form 2316 before it is submitted to the BIR — a certificate carrying only the employer’s signature is no longer compliant, even for employees who otherwise qualify for substituted filing.
Multiple Philippine tax-advisory summaries of the circular — including PwC Philippines’ Tax Alert No. 14 (2024) and Grant Thornton Philippines’ coverage of the issuance — quote its operative language on this point consistently:
“The submission of copies of BIR Form No. 2316 without the signature of the concerned employee under RMC No. 18-2021 shall no longer be allowed, more particularly for those employees who are qualified for substituted filing.”
— RMC No. 29-2024, February 26, 2024, as quoted in Philippine tax-advisory summaries of the circular
RMC No. 29-2024 also granted a one-time transition: the deadline for submitting the BIR’s copy of Form 2316 for taxable year 2023 moved from February 28, 2024 to March 31, 2024, giving employers extra time to go back and collect signatures the pandemic-era relief had let them skip. That extension applied to that one filing cycle — the standing deadlines (employee copy by January 31, BIR copy by February 28) apply in ordinary years.
Timeline: from pandemic relief to reinstated signature requirement #
The rule on the employee’s signature has moved through three distinct BIR issuances since 2021 — tracking which one governs matters more than knowing that “an RMC” addressed signatures at some point.
| Issuance | Date | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| RMC No. 18-2021 | February 2, 2021 | Allowed the BIR to accept BIR Form 2316 without the employee’s signature — employer’s authorized representative signature alone was enough — pandemic-era relief, especially for substituted-filing employees |
| RMC No. 29-2021 | February 26, 2021 | Separately allowed electronic signatures (in place of wet-ink) on BIR Forms 2304, 2306, 2307, and 2316; both parties still had to sign, just not necessarily by hand |
| RMC No. 29-2024 | February 26, 2024 | Reversed RMC No. 18-2021: employee signature is mandatory again; also extended the 2023 taxable-year BIR-copy deadline to March 31, 2024 as a one-time transition |
| Current rule | Ongoing | Both employer and employee must sign BIR Form 2316; either signature may be electronic under RMC No. 29-2021, but neither may be missing |
Note that RMC No. 18-2021 and RMC No. 29-2021 are two different circulars, both dated within the same month of 2021, addressing two different things: one waived the employee’s signature outright, the other permitted signing electronically. RMC No. 29-2024 only reversed the first one — the electronic-signature allowance from RMC No. 29-2021 still stands.
Is an electronic signature still allowed on BIR Form 2316? #
Yes — an electronic signature from either the employer or the employee still satisfies the signature requirement on BIR Form 2316, because RMC No. 29-2024 did not touch the e-signature framework RMC No. 29-2021 established. What changed is only whether the employee’s signature can be skipped, not whether it can be electronic.
For an e-signature to count, the certificate still has to meet RMC No. 29-2021’s conditions: it must be an exact replica of the latest officially printed BIR Form 2316, and the signing method has to be one both parties can rely on as genuinely theirs. Our companion post on electronic signatures for BIR Form 2307 walks through those conditions and their legal basis under the Electronic Commerce Act in more detail — the same conditions carry over to BIR Form 2316, since both forms are covered by the same 2021 circular.
Worked scenario: a resigned employee who is hard to reach #
A concrete case shows why the reinstated rule matters in practice, not just on paper. Suppose a payroll officer at a 60-person BPO firm is preparing BIR Form 2316 for an employee who resigned in September 2025 and has since relocated abroad for a new job, leaving behind a compensation record of ₱480,000 gross pay and ₱42,500 tax withheld for the January–September 2025 period.
Before RMC No. 29-2024, the payroll officer could have signed as the employer’s authorized representative, noted the employee’s unavailability, and submitted the certificate to the BIR by the February 28 deadline — RMC No. 18-2021 made the employee’s signature optional.
Under the current rule, that shortcut is gone. The payroll officer instead has to:
- Reach the former employee by every available channel (personal email, phone, last known address) well before the January 31 furnishing deadline.
- Send the certificate for an electronic signature — e-mail confirmation or a signing tool — rather than requiring an in-person visit, since RMC No. 29-2021 still allows this.
- Keep a record of each outreach attempt and its date, in case the BIR later questions why a certificate was late.
- Treat a signature that never comes back as an open compliance problem to escalate internally — RMC No. 29-2024 does not publish a standing exception for employees who are unreachable, so there is no shortcut back to employer-only signing.
The form itself hasn’t changed; what changed is that skipping the employee’s part is no longer an option the payroll officer can fall back on.
Frequently asked questions #
Does BIR Form 2316 need the employee’s signature? #
Yes. Under Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 29-2024 (February 26, 2024), the BIR no longer accepts BIR Form 2316 without the concerned employee’s signature. The pandemic-era exception that allowed employer-only signatures, granted under RMC No. 18-2021, has ended.
What was RMC No. 18-2021 and does it still apply? #
RMC No. 18-2021, issued February 2, 2021, allowed employers to submit BIR Form 2316 to the BIR without the employee’s signature — provided the employer’s authorized representative signed it — as pandemic-related relief, particularly for employees qualified for substituted filing. It no longer applies; RMC No. 29-2024 reversed this specific allowance.
Can the employee sign BIR Form 2316 electronically instead of by hand? #
Yes. RMC No. 29-2021 (February 26, 2021) allows electronic signatures on BIR Form 2316, along with BIR Forms 2304, 2306, and 2307, without prior BIR approval. RMC No. 29-2024 did not disturb that — an e-signature still satisfies the signature requirement. What changed is that a signature from the employee, manual or electronic, must be present at all; it can no longer be omitted.
What should an employer do if a former employee can’t be reached to sign BIR Form 2316? #
Pursue every reasonable channel to obtain the employee’s signature — including an e-signature by email or a secure signing tool — well before the January 31 furnishing deadline, since RMC No. 29-2024 does not publicize a blanket exception for unreachable former employees. Document the attempts, and treat a missing employee signature as a compliance gap to resolve, not a substitute for one.
When did the reversal of the no-employee-signature rule take effect? #
RMC No. 29-2024, dated February 26, 2024, is the circular that ended the RMC No. 18-2021 exception. It also granted a one-time extension of the BIR-copy submission deadline for taxable year 2023, moving it from February 28, 2024 to March 31, 2024, to give employers time to comply with the reinstated signature requirement.
Is BIR Form 2316 without an employee’s signature ever still accepted? #
Only historically, under the RMC No. 18-2021 pandemic-era relief, which has been superseded. Under the current rule set by RMC No. 29-2024, a BIR Form 2316 missing the employee’s signature — manual or electronic — is not accepted, particularly for employees qualified for substituted filing.
Summary #
BIR Form 2316 needs the employee’s own signature again: RMC No. 29-2024 (February 26, 2024) ended the RMC No. 18-2021 pandemic-era exception that had let the employer’s signature stand alone, and it did so without touching the separate e-signature allowance RMC No. 29-2021 granted the same year. In practice, that means an electronic signature from the employee is still fine, but no signature at all is not — a distinction that matters most for the resigned, transferred, or otherwise hard-to-reach employees an HR team is least equipped to chase down. For the mechanics of completing the rest of the certificate, see How to Fill Out BIR Form 2316, and for what a missing or late signature can cost you, see BIR Form 2316 Penalties.