QAP Late Filing Penalty: A Worked Example Under the NIRC and RMO No. 7-2015 Compromise Schedule

A late Quarterly Alphalist of Payees (QAP) costs more than the return it attaches to would alone: NIRC Section 250 adds ₱1,000 (capped at ₱25,000 a year) for the late information return itself, while the underlying BIR Form 1601-EQ or 1601-FQ still carries its own Section 248 surcharge, Section 249 interest, and RMO No. 7-2015 compromise penalty. This post walks one concrete scenario — a Q2 QAP filed 45 days late alongside a 1601-EQ with ₱80,000 in tax due — through all four charges to a peso-exact total.

Why does a late QAP cost more than just the 1601-EQ penalty? #

QAP is a required attachment to BIR Form 1601-EQ or 1601-FQ, not a return in its own right, so a late or missing QAP is penalized separately as a late information return under NIRC Section 250 — on top of, not instead of, the late-filing charges the 1601-EQ or 1601-FQ itself incurs. QAP Filing Deadlines covers when the QAP and its return are due each quarter; this post covers how much it costs in pesos when that deadline is missed, because the deadlines post stops at naming the applicable NIRC sections without running the numbers.

Section 250 of the NIRC provides:

“In the case of each failure to file an information return, statement or list, or keep any record, or supply any information required by this Code or by the Commissioner on the date prescribed therefor, unless it is shown that such failure is due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect, there shall, upon notice and demand by the Commissioner, be paid by the person failing to file, keep or supply the same, One thousand pesos (P1,000) for each such failure: Provided, however, That the aggregate amount to be imposed for all such failures during a calendar year shall not exceed Twenty-five thousand pesos (P25,000).”

QAP — a DAT-file list of payees and the amounts withheld from them — is exactly the kind of “information return, statement or list” this section targets, distinct from the tax-due-bearing 1601-EQ or 1601-FQ return it rides alongside.

The scenario: a QAP filed 45 days late with ₱80,000 in tax due #

A withholding agent’s Q2 2026 BIR Form 1601-EQ computed ₱80,000 in expanded withholding tax due for the quarter, with its QAP DAT file listing every payee withheld from during April, May, and June. The pair was due on or before July 31, 2026, under the standard quarterly calendar set out in QAP Filing Deadlines. The agent actually filed and paid on September 14, 2026 — 45 days late, with no fraud and no prior BIR notice involved, and no other information-return failures earlier in the calendar year.

Step 1: the Section 250 penalty for the late QAP #

NIRC Section 250 charges ₱1,000 for each failure to file a required information return on time, aggregated up to a ₱25,000 ceiling per calendar year — a flat, one-time amount per failure rather than one that scales with the tax due or the number of days late. Because this is the agent’s only late information return this year, the ₱1,000 floor applies in full, well under the annual cap.

Section 250 penalty: ₱1,000

Step 2: the Section 248 surcharge on the 1601-EQ #

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 — computed on the 1601-EQ’s ₱80,000 tax due, independent of the Section 250 charge on the QAP attachment. The math is a flat percentage with no proration for time.

₱80,000 × 25% = ₱20,000

Willful neglect or a false return would instead trigger the 50% rate under Section 248, doubling this component to ₱40,000 — nothing in this scenario indicates either.

Step 3: the Section 249 interest on the unpaid tax #

Section 249 interest runs on the unpaid tax at 12% per annum — double the BSP legal rate, per Revenue Regulations No. 21-2018 — prorated for the exact number of days between the due date and actual payment, unlike the flat, one-time Section 248 surcharge. With 45 days late on ₱80,000, the 12% annual rate is prorated down to that window.

₱80,000 × 12% × (45 ÷ 365) = ≈ ₱1,184

Step 4: the RMO No. 7-2015 compromise on the 1601-EQ #

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 on the return itself. With ₱80,000 in unpaid tax on the 1601-EQ, the scenario falls in the ₱50,001–₱100,000 bracket of the schedule’s unpaid-tax table.

This ₱15,000 is billed and paid on a separate BIR Form 0605 from the surcharge-and-interest payment, and it is distinct from the ₱1,000 Section 250 charge on the QAP itself — the compromise settles the criminal-exposure track for the 1601-EQ’s own late filing, not the information-return failure on its attachment. See RMO No. 7-2015 Compromise Penalties Explained for the full bracket table and how the two-part assessment works.

The full worked example #

Adding the basic tax to all four charges gives the actual out-of-pocket cost of filing this QAP and its ₱80,000 1601-EQ 45 days late: roughly ₱117,184, of which ₱37,184 is penalty stacked on top of the tax itself. The table below lays out every component.

Filing 45 days late turned an ₱80,000 obligation into roughly ₱117,184 — a jump of more than 46%, driven mainly by the flat 25% surcharge and the ₱15,000 compromise, with the ₱1,000 Section 250 charge and the time-based interest as the smaller components at this length of delay. A qualifying micro or small taxpayer under RR No. 6-2024 would see a lower surcharge (10% instead of 25%), half-rate interest, and a compromise cut to 50% of the schedule amount — the Section 250 information-return penalty itself is not among the charges RR No. 6-2024 discounts.

How to avoid this next quarter #

The cheapest way to avoid a ₱37,184 penalty stack is not paying it faster once incurred — it is building and filing the QAP alongside the 1601-EQ or 1601-FQ on or before the quarterly deadline every time. A few habits close most of the gap that leads to a late QAP:

1. Treat the QAP DAT file and its 1601-EQ or 1601-FQ return as one filing package due on the same date, not two separate tasks.
2. Start building the payee alphalist as withholding entries occur during the quarter, not in the days before the deadline.
3. Confirm the DAT file validates cleanly with enough lead time to refile if the BIR eSubmission system rejects it, since a rejected-then-resubmitted file can still land after the deadline.
4. If a deadline is genuinely at risk, file the 1601-EQ or 1601-FQ and its QAP with the best available data on time rather than waiting for perfect data — a timely, imperfect filing avoids Section 250 and Section 248 exposure that a late, accurate one does not.

For what QAP actually is and which forms it attaches to, see What Is QAP?; for the filing mechanics of the return it accompanies, see BIR Form 1601-EQ Quarterly Filing.

Frequently asked questions #

How much is the penalty for filing QAP late? #

A late Quarterly Alphalist of Payees (QAP) triggers the NIRC Section 250 penalty for a late information return — ₱1,000 per failure, capped at ₱25,000 per calendar year — on top of the Section 248 surcharge, Section 249 interest, and RMO No. 7-2015 compromise penalty that attach to the underlying BIR Form 1601-EQ or 1601-FQ return the QAP is filed with. There is no single flat QAP fee; the total depends on the tax due on the return and how many days late it is.

Is the QAP penalty separate from the 1601-EQ penalty? #

Yes. The QAP is a required attachment, not a standalone return, so a late or missing QAP is penalized as a late information return under NIRC Section 250, while the 1601-EQ or 1601-FQ return it accompanies carries its own Section 248 surcharge, Section 249 interest, and RMO No. 7-2015 compromise computed on the tax due for that return. Both sets of charges apply together when the pair is filed late.

Does the ₱25,000 annual cap under Section 250 apply per QAP or per taxpayer per year? #

The ₱25,000 ceiling in NIRC Section 250 is an aggregate cap on all information-return failures a taxpayer incurs during a calendar year, not a per-QAP limit. A withholding agent with only one late QAP in the year pays the ₱1,000 per-failure amount; a taxpayer with multiple late information returns in the same year sees the ₱1,000 charges add up only until the ₱25,000 aggregate ceiling is reached.

Which RMO No. 7-2015 compromise bracket applies to a late QAP and 1601-EQ? #

The compromise is keyed to the unpaid tax on the 1601-EQ or 1601-FQ return itself, using RMO No. 7-2015’s Annex A table for late-filed returns with unpaid tax — for example, ₱15,000 for a return with ₱50,001 to ₱100,000 in unpaid tax. It is a suggested, consensual amount paid separately from the surcharge and interest, in lieu of criminal referral under Section 255.

Summary #

A QAP filed 45 days late alongside an ₱80,000 1601-EQ costs roughly ₱117,184 once the NIRC Section 250 penalty for the late information return (₱1,000), the Section 248 surcharge (₱20,000), Section 249 interest (≈₱1,184), and the RMO No. 7-2015 compromise (₱15,000) are added to the basic tax. The QAP’s own Section 250 exposure is separate from — and stacks on top of — the standard late-filing charges on the 1601-EQ or 1601-FQ it attaches to. For when the QAP and its return are actually due, see QAP Filing Deadlines; for what QAP is and how it fits into the withholding filing cycle, see What Is QAP?; for the full RMO No. 7-2015 bracket table used in Step 4, see RMO No. 7-2015 Compromise Penalties Explained.