Bureau of Internal Revenue

Arcita 11:18 AM, Jan 19, 2023

January 19, 2023

Dear Ms. Castillo,

Greetings!

Thank you for your request dated Jan 19, 2023 08:20:40 AM under Executive Order No. 2 (s. 2016) on Freedom of Information in the Executive Branch.

Your Request

You asked for BIR Income Tax Return (ITR) and/or BIR Form 2316 from Taxable Years 2016 to 2021.

Response to Request

We called your contact number today, January 19, and apprised you that under Section 12. Section 2.83.1 of RR No. 2-98, as amended, is hereby further amended to read as follows:

“SECTION 2.83.1. Employees Withholding Statements (BIR Form 2316). – In general, every employer or other person who is required to deduct and withhold the tax on compensation, including fringe benefits given to rank and file employees, shall furnish every employee from whom taxes were withheld a Certificate of Compensation Payment and Tax Withheld (BIR Form No. 2316) on or before January 31 of the succeeding calendar year, or if employment is terminated before the close of such calendar year, on the day on which the last payment of compensation is made. 

The said BIR Form No. 2316 is also required is also required to be issued by every employer to employees classified as MWEs and to other employees whose compensation were not subjected to withholding tax.

The employer shall prepare BIR Form No. 2316 in triplicate, which shall be distributed as follows:

(1)	Original – Employee’s copy
(2)	Duplicate – BIR’s copy; and
(3)	Triplicate- Employer’s copy which shall be retained for a period of (10) years

It is suggested that you directly request for a copy of your ITR (BIR Form 2316) from your previous employer/s as they are primary/original source of such document.

For BIR Form 2316 for Taxable Years 2016 to 2018 such request cannot be granted by the Revenue District Office (RDO) since the aforesaid BIR Withholding Tax Certificates were issued in 2016 to 2018 and records of the RDO on those periods are already unavailable since we follow strictly the four (4) year retention period based on existing revenue issuances of the BIR (Revenue Memorandum Circular 73-2008).

Thank you.

Respectfully yours,

FOI Receiving Officer
Public Information and Education Division