Who Must File RELIEF SLSP? VAT-Registered Taxpayer Rules Explained
Every VAT-registered taxpayer must file RELIEF SLSP each quarter, regardless of how much they sold or bought. That wasn’t always the rule — Revenue Regulations (RR) No. 8-2002 originally gated the filing behind peso thresholds — but RR No. 1-2012 removed them, making the Summary List of Sales and Purchases mandatory for all VAT-registered taxpayers. Non-VAT (percentage tax) filers have no SLSP obligation at all, no matter their size.
Check If You Must File RELIEF SLSP FREE →This guide focuses specifically on eligibility: who is on the hook, who is not, and how a peso-threshold myth from an older regulation still trips people up. For what the filing actually contains, see What Is RELIEF SLSP?; for the deadline and penalty schedule once you know you’re required to file, see RELIEF SLSP Deadlines and Penalties.
Who must file RELIEF SLSP today? #
Every VAT-registered taxpayer must submit RELIEF SLSP each quarter, attached to BIR Form 2550Q, with no minimum sales or purchase amount required to trigger the obligation. This applies to corporations, partnerships, and individual VAT-registered professionals or sole proprietors alike. The single gating question is VAT registration status, not transaction volume.
- VAT-registered, any size — must file both the Summary List of Sales and the Summary List of Purchases, even if one or both are zero for the quarter.
- Not VAT-registered (percentage tax under BIR Form 2551Q) — no SLSP obligation, regardless of revenue.
- VAT-registered but mandated onto the BIR’s Electronic Invoicing System (EIS) — the Summary List of Purchases is still required; the Summary List of Sales is waived (covered below).
Is there still a peso threshold — the old P2,500,000 / P1,000,000 rule? #
No — that threshold was removed in 2012 and no longer determines who must file. Under the original Revenue Regulations No. 8-2002, a VAT-registered taxpayer only had to submit the Summary List of Sales if quarterly sales or receipts exceeded P2,500,000, and only had to submit the Summary List of Purchases if quarterly purchases exceeded P1,000,000. Those figures still circulate in older guides and even in some of this site’s own how-to posts describing that earlier framework, which is exactly why they’re worth restating precisely here.
Revenue Regulations No. 1-2012 changed that. It amended Section 4.114-3 of RR No. 16-2005 (the Consolidated VAT Regulations that had carried the RR No. 8-2002 SLSP framework forward) to require the quarterly SLSP from all VAT-registered taxpayers, effective January 1, 2012. The regulation’s own title, as indexed by the Supreme Court E-Library, states the change directly:
“REVENUE REGULATIONS NO. 1-2012 - REQUIRING THE MANDATORY SUBMISSION OF QUARTERLY SUMMARY LIST OF SALES AND PURCHASES (SLSP) BY ALL VAT REGISTERED TAXPAYER THEREBY AMENDING SECTION 4.114-3 OF REVENUE REGULATIONS NO. 16-2005, AS AMENDED”
That title is the regulation’s own description of what it does: it took the SLSP requirement from a threshold-gated filing and made it universal for VAT-registered taxpayers. One practical side effect: the RMO No. 4-2003 rule requiring three succeeding quarters of continued filing after a taxpayer first crossed the old threshold no longer has independent bite for VAT-registered taxpayers, since the filing is now due every quarter regardless of whether any threshold was ever crossed.
| Rule period | Summary List of Sales trigger | Summary List of Purchases trigger |
|---|---|---|
| RR No. 8-2002 (original, pre-2012) | Quarterly sales/receipts over P2,500,000 | Quarterly purchases over P1,000,000 |
| RR No. 1-2012 onward (current) | Any VAT-registered taxpayer, any amount | Any VAT-registered taxpayer, any amount |
Do non-VAT taxpayers ever have a RELIEF-like obligation? #
No — RELIEF SLSP is exclusively a VAT compliance filing, and a taxpayer who is not VAT-registered has no version of it to file, no matter how large the business is. A business paying the 3% percentage tax under BIR Form 2551Q instead of VAT sits entirely outside the RR No. 8-2002 / RR No. 1-2012 framework. Growing past the VAT registration threshold under the NIRC’s VAT provisions is what would create the SLSP obligation — crossing a sales figure alone doesn’t, unless it also triggers VAT registration.
It’s also worth not confusing SLSP with two other BIR DAT filings that sound related but serve different purposes: the Quarterly Alphalist of Payees (QAP) and the Summary Alphalist of Withholding Agents (SAWT) both report creditable withholding tax, not VAT sales and purchases. A VAT-registered taxpayer that also withholds tax on payments to suppliers can owe SLSP, QAP, and SAWT filings in the same quarter — they’re separate obligations with separate triggers, not three names for the same file.
What about taxpayers on the BIR’s Electronic Invoicing System (EIS)? #
Being mandated onto the BIR’s Electronic Invoicing/Receipting System changes the Summary List of Sales, but not the Summary List of Purchases. Under Revenue Regulations No. 8-2022, taxpayers required to use the EIS — large taxpayers, exporters, and e-commerce sellers covered by Section 237-A of the NIRC — are not required to submit the Summary List of Sales, because that sales data already reaches the BIR electronically through the invoicing system itself. The Summary List of Purchases and Importations is still required on the standard quarterly schedule; EIS registration doesn’t touch the purchases side at all.
A mid-market exporter mandated onto EIS in 2026, for example, stops preparing a separate Summary List of Sales DAT file each quarter, but keeps preparing and submitting its Summary List of Purchases exactly as before.
A worked example: a small retailer with modest quarterly figures #
A small VAT-registered sari-sari-style retailer with quarterly sales and purchases well under the old thresholds still has to file, because the threshold no longer exists. Consider a fictional example: a VAT-registered retail store reports Q2 2026 (April–June) taxable sales of P380,000 and taxable purchases of P210,000 — both far below the pre-2012 P2,500,000 and P1,000,000 marks.
- Under the old RR No. 8-2002 thresholds, neither figure would have crossed the line, and the store would have owed no SLSP filing that quarter.
- Under the current rule from RR No. 1-2012, VAT registration alone is enough. The store must submit both a Summary List of Sales (P380,000 in taxable sales, with the counterparty rows behind it) and a Summary List of Purchases (P210,000 in taxable purchases), on the same 25th-day quarterly deadline as its BIR Form 2550Q — see RELIEF SLSP Deadlines and Penalties for that schedule.
Size alone never exempts a VAT-registered taxpayer from RELIEF SLSP today; only being non-VAT-registered, or a narrow EIS carve-out on the sales side, changes the obligation. Once the figures are ready, How to Convert Excel to BIR DAT File for RELIEF SLSP covers turning a spreadsheet like this into the DAT layout the BIR expects.
Frequently asked questions #
Who must file RELIEF SLSP? #
Every VAT-registered taxpayer must file the RELIEF Summary List of Sales and Purchases (SLSP) as an attachment to BIR Form 2550Q, regardless of the peso amount of sales or purchases for the quarter. The obligation is tied to VAT-registration status, not a transaction-size threshold, under Revenue Regulations No. 1-2012.
Is there still a peso threshold for RELIEF SLSP, like the old P2,500,000 or P1,000,000 rule? #
No. Revenue Regulations No. 8-2002 originally required the Summary List of Sales only from VAT-registered taxpayers with quarterly sales or receipts over P2,500,000, and the Summary List of Purchases only from those with quarterly purchases over P1,000,000. Revenue Regulations No. 1-2012 amended Section 4.114-3 of RR No. 16-2005 to make both lists mandatory for all VAT-registered taxpayers regardless of amount, removing those thresholds.
Do non-VAT (percentage tax) taxpayers have to file RELIEF SLSP? #
No. RELIEF SLSP is strictly a VAT compliance filing. Taxpayers who pay the 3% percentage tax under BIR Form 2551Q instead of VAT, because they are not VAT-registered, have no SLSP obligation regardless of how large their sales or purchases are. Their information-reporting obligations, if any, fall under separate BIR rules, not RR No. 8-2002 or RR No. 1-2012.
Does a VAT-registered taxpayer with zero sales or purchases in a quarter still have to file? #
Yes. A VAT-registered taxpayer with no taxable sales or purchases for the quarter is still expected to submit an SLSP reflecting that, commonly filed as a no-data or zero listing, because the filing requirement flows from VAT registration itself, not from having a reportable transaction to list.
Do taxpayers on the BIR’s Electronic Invoicing System still have to file SLSP? #
Partially. Under Revenue Regulations No. 8-2022, taxpayers mandated onto the BIR’s Electronic Invoicing/Receipting System (EIS), such as large taxpayers, exporters, and e-commerce sellers under Section 237-A of the NIRC, are not required to submit the Summary List of Sales, since that data already reaches the BIR electronically. They must still submit the Summary List of Purchases and Importations.
Is RELIEF SLSP the same filing as QAP or SAWT? #
No. RELIEF SLSP reports a VAT-registered taxpayer’s sales and purchases for cross-matching under the BIR’s Reconciliation of Listing for Enforcement program. The Quarterly Alphalist of Payees (QAP) and the Summary Alphalist of Withholding Agents (SAWT) are separate DAT files tied to creditable withholding tax reporting, not VAT sales and purchases; a taxpayer can have obligations for one, the other, or both, but they are distinct filings with distinct triggers.
Summary #
RELIEF SLSP eligibility no longer runs through the P2,500,000 / P1,000,000 thresholds of RR No. 8-2002 — RR No. 1-2012 made the quarterly Summary List of Sales and Purchases mandatory for every VAT-registered taxpayer, regardless of transaction amount, while non-VAT percentage-tax filers stay outside the requirement entirely. The one real modern carve-out is narrower than a threshold: RR No. 8-2022 waives the Summary List of Sales for taxpayers mandated onto the BIR’s Electronic Invoicing System, but leaves the Summary List of Purchases in place for them. For the mechanics of what belongs in each list, see What Is RELIEF SLSP?; for the filing deadline and penalty exposure once the obligation applies, see RELIEF SLSP Deadlines and Penalties.