Do You Report Import Purchases in Your RELIEF SLSP?

Yes — import purchases belong in your RELIEF SLSP, but they don’t sit in the same rows as your local purchases. The BIR’s RELIEF system treats an importation as its own transaction type: it still counts as purchase activity for a VAT-registered taxpayer, but it runs through a separate importation schedule tied to Bureau of Customs (BOC) documents, not the domestic-supplier TIN-and-invoice rows that make up the regular Summary List of Purchases (SLP).

This is a narrower question than Do You Report Purchases From a Non-VAT Supplier in Your RELIEF SLSP?, which deals with domestic suppliers who simply aren’t VAT-registered. An importation isn’t a domestic supplier transaction at all — the counterparty is a foreign shipper, the VAT is assessed by the BOC rather than charged by a local seller, and the paper trail behind it looks nothing like a BIR-registered invoice. For the mechanics of that VAT itself, see VAT on Importation in the Philippines; for who has to file RELIEF SLSP in the first place, see Who Must File RELIEF SLSP?.

Are import purchases part of RELIEF SLSP, or a separate mechanism entirely? #

Both, in a specific sense: an importation is purchase activity that belongs in the RELIEF SLSP submission, but the BIR routes it through its own schedule rather than blending it into the local Summary List of Purchases. Guidance discussing the Electronic Invoicing/Receipting System (EIS) carve-out under Revenue Regulations No. 8-2022 — covered from the sales side in Who Must File RELIEF SLSP? — consistently refers to the purchases-side obligation using the compound term “Summary List of Purchases and Importations,” not just “Summary List of Purchases.” That naming is itself evidence that importations are understood as a component of the purchases-side RELIEF obligation, not something excluded from it.

Independent guides to the BIR’s RELIEF Data Entry and Validation Module describe the module as maintaining data for Sales, Purchases, and Importations as distinct sections, with a dedicated IMPORTATIONS button separate from the regular purchases entry screen, and an Import Entry Number field in place of a local supplier’s invoice number. That structure lines up with how Revenue Memorandum Order No. 4-2003 — the BIR’s implementing order for the original SLSP framework under RR No. 8-2002 — describes a “File” as covering sales, local purchases, and importation as separate transaction types processed per month. Importation has consistently been treated as its own category alongside, not folded inside, local purchases.

How is VAT on importation paid, and why does that make the documentation different? #

Import VAT is assessed and paid to the Bureau of Customs before the goods are released, using a BOC document — not charged by a domestic supplier on a BIR-registered invoice — which is exactly why RELIEF handles it on a separate schedule. Under NIRC Section 107, the statute is direct about how import VAT is collected:

“There shall be levied, assessed and collected on every importation of goods a value-added tax equivalent to twelve percent (12%) based on the total value used by the Bureau of Customs in determining tariff and customs duties, plus customs duties, excise taxes, if any, and other charges, such tax to be paid by the importer prior to the release of such goods from customs custody.”

Read that against a domestic purchase: a local supplier charges VAT on its own invoice, and the buyer’s proof of that VAT is the supplier’s BIR-registered receipt bearing the supplier’s TIN — exactly the record a Summary List of Purchases row is built from. An importation has no domestic supplier invoice to key against. The 12% import VAT is assessed on the customs value (see the full computation in VAT on Importation in the Philippines) and evidenced by the Import Entry and Internal Revenue Declaration (IEIRD), a BOC document, not a BIR-registered seller’s receipt. That single structural difference — a foreign shipper and a BOC assessment instead of a Philippine-TIN-holding supplier — is the reason RELIEF gives importations their own schedule rather than merging them into local purchase rows.

Where does the import purchase actually end up — RELIEF schedule vs. the 2550Q? #

An import purchase surfaces in two different places for two different reasons: a RELIEF importation schedule for cross-matching, and the input tax section of BIR Form 2550Q for the actual VAT credit — and the two aren’t optional alternatives to each other. For a VAT-registered importer using the goods in trade or business, the import VAT paid to the BOC is creditable input VAT under NIRC Section 110, on the same footing as VAT charged by a local supplier.

• RELIEF SLSP (purchases/importations side): the transaction is recorded in the importations component of the submission, referencing the Import Entry Number and BOC-assessed values rather than a domestic supplier’s TIN — this is the cross-matching record the BIR’s RELIEF program checks against BOC data.
• BIR Form 2550Q (input tax schedule): the same import VAT is claimed as creditable input tax, supported by the IEIRD and proof of payment to the BOC, as covered in VAT on Importation in the Philippines.

Both records point to the same underlying transaction; neither one substitutes for the other. A taxpayer that claims the input VAT on the 2550Q but never records the importation in the corresponding RELIEF schedule creates exactly the kind of mismatch the BIR’s cross-matching program is built to flag — the same risk explored from the local-purchase side in RELIEF SLSP vs BIR Form 2550Q.

One honest caveat: this site has not been able to confirm, through public search alone, the precise field-by-field layout the BIR’s current RELIEF Data Entry Module or eSubmission specification uses for the importations schedule — older module guides describe an Import Entry Number field and a dedicated importations screen, but taxpayers preparing a current submission should verify the exact current layout against the BIR’s current Data Entry Module or eSubmission file format rather than assume an older screenshot is unchanged. The general rule — import purchases are tracked through BOC import documents on their own schedule, separate from local-supplier SLP rows — is well corroborated; the exact current column names are worth a direct check before filing.

A worked example: a retailer buying both locally and by direct importation #

A VAT-registered retailer that stocks inventory from both a domestic supplier and a direct import shipment has to route the two purchases very differently — same quarter, same VAT return, two separate paper trails.

Consider a fictional VAT-registered housewares retailer during Q3 2026 (July–September). It buys P300,000 of stock from a local VAT-registered distributor, invoiced with 12% VAT and the distributor’s TIN on the receipt. In the same quarter, it also directly imports P400,000 worth of housewares (BOC-assessed customs value) from a supplier in China, paying import VAT to the BOC before the shipment clears — using the computation method in VAT on Importation in the Philippines.

Both purchases are real inventory buys in the same quarter, and both generate creditable input VAT. But the retailer’s bookkeeper has to pull the distributor’s invoice for one line and the IEIRD for the other, key the local purchase into the regular SLP rows, key the import into the importations section separately, and make sure both amounts land in the correct input-tax lines of that quarter’s BIR Form 2550Q. Treating the import like just another local supplier row — or, worse, leaving it off the SLSP submission because “it’s not a local purchase” — is the mistake this post exists to head off.

Frequently asked questions #

Do import purchases belong in the RELIEF SLSP at all? #

Yes. A VAT-registered taxpayer’s importations are part of the total purchase activity the RELIEF SLSP is meant to capture, and BIR guidance on Revenue Regulations No. 8-2022 explicitly refers to the combined obligation as the Summary List of Purchases and Importations. Importations are not omitted from RELIEF SLSP reporting — they are entered on a separate importation schedule rather than mixed into the rows built from local suppliers.

Why aren’t import purchases entered the same way as local purchases? #

Because the underlying documentation is different. A local purchase is backed by a domestic VAT-registered supplier’s invoice or receipt carrying that supplier’s Philippine TIN. An importation is backed by the Bureau of Customs’ Import Entry and Internal Revenue Declaration (IEIRD), which has no local supplier TIN to key against — the counterparty is a foreign shipper, and the VAT was assessed and paid to the BOC, not charged by a BIR-registered seller. The RELIEF Data Entry Module reflects that difference with a dedicated importations section separate from the regular purchases section.

Does import VAT still show up on BIR Form 2550Q even though it’s on a separate SLSP schedule? #

Yes. Import VAT paid to the Bureau of Customs on goods used in trade or business is creditable input VAT under NIRC Section 110, claimed in the input tax section of the quarterly BIR Form 2550Q, supported by the IEIRD and proof of payment. It reaches the VAT return regardless of which SLSP schedule holds the underlying transaction record.

Does an importation count toward the quarterly purchase figure that triggers the SLP filing requirement? #

Historically, yes — quarterly purchase totals used to determine SLP thresholds under the original Revenue Regulations No. 8-2002 framework were described as net of VAT, including importations. Since Revenue Regulations No. 1-2012 made the SLSP mandatory for every VAT-registered taxpayer regardless of amount, that threshold question has less practical bite today, but the underlying point stands: an importation is treated as part of a taxpayer’s purchase activity, not something outside it.

Where is the exact current DAT-file schedule or field name for importations confirmed? #

Multiple independent guides to the BIR’s RELIEF Data Entry and Validation Module describe a dedicated IMPORTATIONS section with its own Import Entry Number field, separate from the regular purchases section, and BIR-adjacent guidance uses the compound term Summary List of Purchases and Importations. This site has not been able to confirm the precise current field-by-field layout of that schedule in the latest eSubmission specification, so taxpayers should verify the exact current format against the BIR’s current RELIEF Data Entry Module or eSubmission file layout rather than assume an older guide’s screenshots are unchanged.

Summary #

Import purchases are not left out of the RELIEF SLSP — a VAT-registered taxpayer’s importations are purchase activity, and BIR guidance treats the purchases-side obligation as covering both, referring to it as the Summary List of Purchases and Importations. What changes is the mechanism: a local purchase is keyed against a domestic supplier’s TIN and BIR-registered invoice on the regular Summary List of Purchases, while an importation is keyed against the Bureau of Customs’ Import Entry Number and IEIRD on a separate importations schedule, because the VAT itself was assessed and paid to the BOC under NIRC Section 107 rather than charged by a local seller. Either way, the same import VAT still has to reach the input tax section of that quarter’s BIR Form 2550Q, backed by the IEIRD. For the underlying filing obligation, see Who Must File RELIEF SLSP?; for how domestic non-VAT-supplier purchases are handled by contrast, see Do You Report Purchases From a Non-VAT Supplier in Your RELIEF SLSP?; for the full mechanics of how import VAT is computed and later credited, see VAT on Importation in the Philippines.