Removed From the BIR Top Withholding Agent List? What Actually Changes

Removal from the BIR’s published Top Withholding Agent (TWA) list ends the 1% (goods) / 2% (services) withholding that applied solely because of TWA status — effective the date stated for that specific list, not the day a company notices the change. Under Revenue Regulations (RR) No. 11-2018, the published list itself serves as notice. Nothing else about a company’s other withholding obligations changes.

This guide assumes you already know the basics of TWA classification — if not, start with Who Is a BIR Top Withholding Agent? TWA Rules and Obligations Explained. What follows is narrower: a company that was already on a BIR TWA list and has since been removed from it, and what that removal does — and doesn’t — change.

How the BIR structures its published TWA lists #

The BIR does not publish one static TWA list; it publishes three distinct sub-lists each time it updates its roster, and a company’s position on the deletion list is what actually ends its TWA obligation. RR No. 11-2018 restructured how the BIR designates and publishes Top Withholding Agents, and the classification splits the published roster into three parts.

“the list of withholding agents is further classified into: (1) list of existing withholding agents; (2) list of additional withholding agents; and (3) list of withholding agents for deletion from existing list.”

— Grant Thornton Philippines, summarizing the list structure under RR No. 11-2018

That third category — the deletion list — is the one that matters for a company being removed. Appearing on it is what ends the TWA-specific withholding obligation; appearing on the first or second list is what creates or continues it. The published lists themselves are the BIR’s notice mechanism — there is no separate individual letter confirming a company’s deletion.

When delisting actually takes effect #

A company’s removal from the TWA roster takes effect on the date tied to the specific list it appears on, not the date it finds out about the list. The BIR circularized its first set of lists under RR No. 11-2018 through RMC No. 86-2018, published around October 2018, with an effectivity of November 1, 2018 for the agents added or deleted in that round. A later supplementary round of additions and deletions was circularized through RMC No. 36-2019, published around March 2019, taking effect April 1, 2019.

The practical implication: a company only stops applying the 1%/2% TWA rate from the stated effective date of the list it is deleted on — purchases made before that date, even if the company already suspects it will be delisted, are not retroactively unwound. Each new round of BIR lists carries its own effectivity date, so a company should always check the specific circular, not assume a uniform cutoff across every delisting round.

What stops, and what doesn’t, once a company is delisted #

Delisting only removes the TWA-specific add-on — the 1% on goods and 2% on services that applied purely because of TWA classification — and leaves every other withholding obligation under RR No. 2-98 fully intact. This is the single most common point of confusion, and it carries real compliance risk if a company treats delisting as a blanket exemption from withholding. For the mechanics of how TWA withholding and ordinary named-payment withholding run side by side while a company is still classified, see Filing BIR Form 1601-EQ When You’re Both a Regular Withholding Agent and a Top Withholding Agent — the same two-track logic applies in reverse once delisting removes one of the two tracks.

A delisted company still issues BIR Form 2307 wherever a named-payment category applies; it simply stops issuing one for ordinary goods or services purchases that were only subject to withholding because of its (former) TWA status.

Carryforward rule: silence is not delisting #

A company does not get delisted by default simply because a newer BIR list doesn’t mention it again — classification carries forward until a deletion list names it. RMC No. 143-2019, a later clarificatory circular, reiterated this point directly: a taxpayer validly classified as a TWA under an earlier regulation remains a TWA unless and until it is affirmatively included on a subsequent published deletion list. Non-publication, the absence of a new notice, or simply not reappearing in a later additions round is not itself removal.

This cuts the other way too. A taxpayer that has never appeared on any BIR-published list — existing, additional, or deletion — was never obligated to apply the 1%/2% TWA withholding to begin with. That is a different scenario from a company that was once validly listed and later appears on a deletion list; both end up not applying TWA withholding, but for different legal reasons, and a company should be able to tell which situation it is actually in before relying on either.

Worked example: a distributor delisted in the 2019 round #

A mid-size packaging distributor appeared on the BIR’s original October 2018 TWA list, applied 1%/2% withholding for roughly five months, then appeared on the BIR’s March 2019 supplementary deletion list — and had to work out exactly which of its payments still required withholding.

Here’s how that played out in practice:

1. The distributor’s name appeared on the list of existing withholding agents circularized under RMC No. 86-2018, effective November 1, 2018. From that date, it began withholding 1% on local goods purchases and 2% on local services purchases, issuing BIR Form 2307 to every affected supplier.
2. In March 2019, a new supplementary circular, RMC No. 36-2019, published a deletion list — and the distributor’s name was on it this time, with removal effective April 1, 2019.
3. From April 1 onward, the distributor stopped withholding 1%/2% on ordinary purchases of goods and services. A ₱180,000 raw-material purchase from a local supplier on April 5 was paid in full, with no BIR Form 2307 issued for that transaction, because the TWA-only trigger no longer applied.
4. The distributor’s monthly ₱45,000 office rent and its ₱60,000 quarterly retainer to an outside accounting firm continued to require withholding at 5% and 10% respectively, exactly as before — those obligations arise from RR No. 2-98’s named-payment categories, not from TWA status, and delisting had no effect on them.
5. Purchases made in January through March 2019 — before the April 1 effective date — were not reopened or adjusted; the certificates and remittances already filed for that period stood as filed.

The distributor’s finance team confirmed its position by checking the actual deletion list attached to RMC No. 36-2019 rather than assuming removal from silence — consistent with the carryforward rule under RMC No. 143-2019.

Frequently asked questions #

What happens when a company is removed from the BIR Top Withholding Agent list? #

The company stops being required to apply the Top Withholding Agent (TWA) rate of 1% on local purchases of goods or 2% on local purchases of services, effective the date stated for that published deletion list under RR No. 11-2018. It does not become exempt from all withholding tax — only the TWA-specific 1%/2% obligation ends.

When does removal from the TWA list take effect? #

Removal takes effect on the date tied to the specific published list, not the date a company learns about it. For the BIR’s original lists circularized under RMC No. 86-2018, the effectivity was November 1, 2018; for the supplementary lists circularized under RMC No. 36-2019, it was April 1, 2019. Each new round of lists states its own effective date.

Does being delisted from the TWA list mean a company no longer has to withhold any tax? #

No. Delisting only removes the additional 1% (goods) or 2% (services) withholding that applied purely because of TWA status under RR No. 11-2018. The company remains a withholding agent for every other category of income payment subject to creditable withholding tax under RR No. 2-98 — professional fees, rent, commissions, contractor payments, and similar named payments — regardless of TWA status.

How does a company find out it has been removed from the BIR Top Withholding Agent list? #

The BIR’s published list itself is the official notice — there is no separate letter. A company should check the list of withholding agents for deletion attached to the relevant Revenue Memorandum Circular (for example RMC No. 86-2018 or RMC No. 36-2019) to confirm whether its name actually appears on a deletion list, rather than assuming removal because no new notice arrived.

If a company was a TWA before but doesn’t appear on a newer BIR list, is it automatically delisted? #

No. Per RMC No. 143-2019, TWA classification carries forward until a taxpayer is affirmatively included on a published deletion list. Simply not appearing in a newer round of additions, or the absence of further correspondence, is not itself removal — the company remains obligated to withhold at 1%/2% until it actually appears on a deletion list.

Is a company that was never on any BIR Top Withholding Agent list in the same position as one that was delisted? #

No. A taxpayer that never appeared on any published BIR list was never obligated to apply the 1%/2% TWA withholding to begin with, and that is a different scenario from a company that was validly classified as a TWA and later appears on a deletion list. Both end up not withholding at the TWA rate, but for different legal reasons.

Summary #

Delisting from the BIR’s published Top Withholding Agent roster is narrow in scope: it ends the 1%/2% withholding that RR No. 11-2018 attached specifically to TWA status, effective the date stated for that round’s list — November 1, 2018 under RMC No. 86-2018, April 1, 2019 under RMC No. 36-2019 — and nothing earlier. It does not touch the ordinary named-payment withholding every business owes under RR No. 2-98 on rent, professional fees, and similar categories, and it does not happen automatically just because a newer list stays silent on a company’s name — RMC No. 143-2019 makes classification carry forward until an actual deletion list says otherwise. The safest move after any BIR list update is the same one: check the published deletion list directly, confirm the effective date, and re-map which of your payments still trigger withholding under RR No. 2-98 before assuming anything has changed.