BIR Form 2307: What It Is, Who Files It & How to Fill It Out (2026)

If you pay contractors or get paid as a freelancer in the Philippines, BIR Form 2307 is unavoidable — and getting it wrong costs real money. This guide covers what the form is, who issues and files it, the EWT rates, the deadlines, how to fill it out correctly, and how to generate it without typing each one by hand.

What is BIR Form 2307?

BIR Form 2307, officially the Certificate of Creditable Tax Withheld at Source, is a document a payor issues to a payee to certify the Expanded Withholding Tax (EWT) it deducted from a payment and remitted to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). The payee then claims that amount as a tax credit.

In plain terms: whenever a registered business pays a contractor, freelancer, supplier, or professional, it's often required to hold back a small percentage of that payment as tax and send it to the BIR on the payee's behalf. The 2307 is the receipt proving this happened. It tells the payee two things — how much income was paid, and how much tax was already withheld and remitted.

That second figure matters because it isn't lost money. On the payee's books, the withheld tax is treated as an asset — an income-tax prepayment — that gets deducted from their final tax bill when they file their quarterly or annual Income Tax Return (ITR). Without a valid 2307, the payee has no proof the tax was paid and can't claim the credit, meaning they'd effectively pay tax twice on the same income.

BIR Form 2307 vs. 2316 vs. 2306: What's the difference?

These three BIR certificates all deal with withheld tax, which is exactly why they get confused. The difference comes down to what kind of income is being taxed and whether the tax is creditable or final.

	Form 2307	Form 2316	Form 2306
Official name	Certificate of Creditable Tax Withheld at Source	Certificate of Compensation Payment / Tax Withheld	Certificate of Final Tax Withheld at Source
Covers	Payments to contractors, freelancers, suppliers, lessors, professionals	Salaries, wages, and bonuses of employees	Income subject to final withholding tax
Type of tax	Expanded Withholding Tax (EWT) — creditable	Withholding Tax on Compensation	Final Withholding Tax — not creditable
Can it be claimed as a tax credit?	Yes — offsets the payee's income tax due	Typically covers the employee's full tax liability	No — the tax is already final
Issued by	The payor (client/company) to the payee	The employer to the employee	The payor to the payee

The quickest way to tell them apart:

• Form 2307 is for non-employees — if you're paying or being paid as a contractor, freelancer, or supplier, this is your form. The tax withheld is creditable, meaning the payee gets it back as a deduction on their ITR.
• Form 2316 is for employees. If you're on a company payroll receiving a salary, your employer issues you a 2316, not a 2307.
• Form 2306 is for income taxed with final withholding tax — the tax stops there. Unlike the 2307, the amount on a 2306 is not creditable against your income tax return, because it's already considered fully settled. It's used for income like bank interest, dividends, and royalties.

So if you ever receive the wrong certificate from a client, this is usually the issue: a freelancer paid for professional services should get a 2307, not a 2306 or 2316.

Who needs to issue or file BIR Form 2307?

Form 2307 always involves two parties: the payor who issues it and the payee who receives and keeps it. Your role determines your responsibility.

If you're the payor (withholding agent)

Your business is required to act as a withholding agent — deducting EWT and issuing a 2307 — whenever you pay certain individuals or entities for goods or services. Common payments that trigger this include:

• Professional and talent fees — consultants, lawyers, CPAs, doctors, IT specialists, marketing agencies, and freelancers.
• Contractors and subcontractors — construction, repairs, maintenance, and similar services.
• Rentals — commercial or residential property, equipment, and other leased assets.
• Regular suppliers of goods and services — especially if your business has been designated a Top Withholding Agent (TWA) by the BIR, in which case you withhold 2% on services and 1% on goods.

As the payor, you carry the compliance burden: you must withhold the correct amount, remit it to the BIR, and issue a properly filled 2307 to every payee. Miss any step and the penalties fall on you, not the payee. If you're issuing these every quarter, doing it by hand for each payee quickly becomes the bottleneck — which is why most withholding agents generate Form 2307 in bulk from their alphalist instead.

If you're the payee (freelancer, supplier, or corporation)

If you're a freelancer, self-employed professional, supplier, or corporation receiving income subject to EWT, you're the payee — and the 2307 is one of the most important documents you'll collect all year.

You don't fill it out yourself; your client prepares and issues it to you. But you're responsible for:

• Requesting it from every client who withheld tax — don't assume they'll send it automatically.
• Keeping each certificate and matching it to the corresponding invoice and payment.
• Attaching them to your ITR (Form 1701/1701Q for individuals, 1702/1702Q for non-individuals) to claim the withheld amount as a tax credit.

Without these certificates, you can't prove the tax was already paid on your behalf — so you'd lose the credit and effectively overpay. If a client hasn't issued yours, follow up before filing season; most can produce one within a few days.

Why BIR Form 2307 matters

It's easy to treat the 2307 as just another piece of paperwork, but it carries real financial weight for both sides of the transaction.

It's your proof of tax already paid. The 2307 is official confirmation that tax was deducted from a payment and remitted to the BIR. For the payee, it's the only acceptable evidence that this withholding happened — verbal confirmation or a bank record won't do.

It directly lowers the payee's tax bill. The amount on each 2307 is creditable against income tax due. When a freelancer or business files their quarterly or annual ITR, they total up every 2307 received and subtract it from what they owe. Collect ₱40,000 in withheld tax across the year, and that's ₱40,000 off your final bill — money you've already paid and shouldn't pay again.

Missing certificates mean overpaying. Without a valid 2307, the payee can't claim the credit. The tax was still deducted from their income, but with no proof, they end up paying tax twice on the same peso — once at source, once at filing. This is the single most common way freelancers quietly lose money at tax time.

For payors, it's penalty protection. Issuing the 2307 correctly creates a clean audit trail showing you withheld and remitted properly. Failing to withhold, remit, or issue it exposes your business to surcharges, interest, and — in serious cases — far steeper penalties. A correctly issued certificate is the difference between a smooth audit and a costly one.

EWT rates covered by BIR Form 2307

The whole point of a 2307 is to document how much tax was withheld — and that depends on the type of payment and who the payee is. Here are the most common EWT rates a withholding agent applies. (Rates below reflect the TRAIN Law rules under RR 11-2018, as amended by RR 14-2023, current for 2026.)

Income type	Typical payee	EWT rate
Professional & talent fees	Lawyers, CPAs, doctors, consultants, IT specialists, freelancers	5% if individual's gross income for the year is ≤ ₱3M (with sworn declaration) · 10% if > ₱3M, VAT-registered, or no sworn declaration submitted
Professional fees (non-individual)	Partnerships, corporations providing services	10% if gross income ≤ ₱720,000 · 15% if > ₱720,000
Contractors & subcontractors	Construction, engineering, specialty contractors	2% on gross payments
Rentals	Real or personal property, equipment, billboards	5% on gross rental/lease payments
Top Withholding Agent — services	Local supplier of services	2% on gross payments
Top Withholding Agent — goods	Local supplier of goods	1% on gross payments

The sworn declaration matters. To qualify for the lower 5% rate, an individual payee must submit a sworn declaration of gross receipts plus their BIR Certificate of Registration (Form 2303) to each client, generally before the first payment of the year. No declaration on file means the payor is required to withhold at the higher 10% rate.

Worked example 1 — paying a supplier

Your company pays ₱100,000 for repair services from a regular supplier (you're a Top Withholding Agent):

• Services rate = 2%
• Tax withheld = ₱100,000 × 2% = ₱2,000
• Net paid to supplier = ₱100,000 − ₱2,000 = ₱98,000

The ₱2,000 goes to the BIR, and the supplier's 2307 shows ₱100,000 income paid with ₱2,000 withheld.

Worked example 2 — paying a professional

You pay a consultant ₱50,000 for advisory work (individual, no sworn declaration on file, so the higher rate applies):

• Professional fee rate = 10%
• Tax withheld = ₱50,000 × 10% = ₱5,000
• Net paid to consultant = ₱50,000 − ₱5,000 = ₱45,000

One mistake worth flagging: VAT

If your payee is VAT-registered, compute EWT on the amount net of the 12% VAT, not the gross invoice. For example, on a ₱112,000 VAT-inclusive invoice, the EWT base is ₱100,000 (the VAT-exclusive amount), not ₱112,000. Withholding on the full VAT-inclusive figure over-withholds tax and produces an incorrect 2307 — a detail FormPH's generator handles automatically when it reads your alphalist figures.

How to fill out BIR Form 2307

Filling out the form is the payor's job. The current version is the January 2018 ENCS edition, and it's split into two parts: one identifying the payee, one for your details and the withholding breakdown. Accuracy matters here — a wrong TIN or ATC code creates problems for the payee when they file.

Step 1 — Enter the period covered. At the top, indicate the calendar period the certificate covers (the "for the period from / to" fields). For quarterly EWT, this is the quarter in which the income was paid.

Step 2 — Complete Part I: Payee information. This identifies who received the income:

• Payee's TIN
• Payee's registered name (for corporations) or name (last, first, middle for individuals)
• Payee's registered address and ZIP code

Double-check the TIN against the payee's Certificate of Registration (Form 2303) — a mismatch here is the most common reason a 2307 fails the BIR's TIN-matching validation later.

Step 3 — Complete Part II: Payor information. This identifies your company as the withholding agent:

• Payor's TIN
• Payor's registered name
• Payor's registered address and ZIP code

Step 4 — Fill in the income payments and tax withheld table. This is the core of the form. For each income type, enter:

• The Alphanumeric Tax Code (ATC) — the BIR's code for that specific income type (e.g. WI/WC codes for professional fees, WC158 for goods).
• The nature of income payment.
• The amount of income payment for each month of the quarter, broken down per month.
• The total for the quarter.
• The tax withheld for the period.

The tax withheld should equal the income payment multiplied by the correct ATC rate — for example, ₱100,000 × 1% = ₱1,000, not the rate itself. Entering the rate where the peso amount belongs is a frequent encoding error.

Step 5 — Sign and issue. The withholding agent (or authorized representative) signs the certificate, and it's issued to the payee. Both parties keep a copy; the payee will attach theirs to their income tax return.

Doing this for one payee is simple. Doing it for a hundred isn't. Every figure in this table already exists in your Quarterly Alphalist of Payees — so instead of re-encoding each certificate by hand, you can generate every Form 2307 in bulk from a single upload, with the income × rate = tax withheld check applied automatically on every row.

Common BIR Form 2307 mistakes to avoid

Most 2307 problems don't show up until filing season — when a mismatch suddenly blocks a tax credit or triggers a BIR notice. Here are the errors that cause the most trouble:

Using the wrong ATC code. Each income type has a specific Alphanumeric Tax Code, and the BIR provides a detailed list. Pick the wrong one and the rate, classification, and the payee's ability to claim the credit can all be thrown off.

Miscalculating the tax base on VAT-registered payees. For a VAT-registered payee, EWT is computed on the income net of the 12% VAT — not the VAT-inclusive total. Withholding on the gross invoice over-withholds tax and produces a certificate with the wrong figures.

Applying the wrong rate. The correct EWT rate often hinges on whether the payee is an individual or corporation and whether they've submitted a sworn declaration of gross receipts. No sworn declaration on file usually means you're required to withhold at the higher rate.

TIN mismatches. The BIR runs a strict TIN-matching validation. The TIN, registered name, and amounts on each 2307 must line up exactly with what you report on your Quarterly Alphalist of Payees (QAP) and annual returns. A single transposed digit can flag a discrepancy.

Entering the rate instead of the peso amount. The "tax withheld" field needs the actual amount in pesos (income × rate), not the percentage — an easy slip during manual encoding that silently produces incorrect certificates.

Issuing late — or not at all. Missing the issuance deadline, or forgetting a payee entirely, prevents that payee from claiming their credit on time and exposes you to penalties.

For a deeper look at each of these and how to prevent them, see our guide to common BIR Form 2307 mistakes.

BIR Form 2307 deadlines and filing process

The 2307 sits inside a larger withholding-tax compliance cycle. As the payor, you're not just issuing certificates — you're also remitting the tax and reporting it. Here's how the pieces and their deadlines fit together.

When to issue Form 2307

The deadline depends on the type of tax withheld:

Tax type	Issuance deadline
Expanded Withholding Tax (EWT)	On or before the 20th day of the month following the close of the taxable quarter — or immediately, if the payee requests it with the income payment
Percentage tax (government money payments)	Within 25 days after the end of the taxable quarter
VAT withholding	On or before the 20th day of the month following the month of withholding

For most businesses, EWT is the relevant one. Example: for payments made in Q1 (January–March), the 2307 must be issued by April 20.

The related forms you also need to file

Issuing the 2307 is only part of the obligation. As the withholding agent, you remit and report the tax through a chain of returns:

• BIR Form 0619-E — monthly remittance of the creditable income tax you withheld.
• BIR Form 1601-EQ — quarterly remittance return, filed with the Quarterly Alphalist of Payees (QAP) listing every payee and amount withheld.
• BIR Form 1604-E — annual information return summarizing all EWT for the year, with the annual alphalist.

The figures have to reconcile across all of these: the totals on your 2307s, your QAP, and your 1601-EQ must match. This is what the BIR's TIN-matching validation checks, and mismatches are a common audit trigger.

What the payee files

On the receiving end, the payee attaches their 2307s to their income tax return — Form 1701/1701Q for individuals, 1702/1702Q for non-individuals — to claim the withheld amount as a credit. They also typically submit a Summary Alphalist of Withholding Taxes (SAWT), which consolidates the tax credits from every 2307 they received. The SAWT is essentially the payee-side mirror of your QAP.

Online vs. manual filing

The BIR has shifted heavily toward electronic submission:

• eFPS (Electronic Filing and Payment System) — mandatory for large taxpayers and certain corporations.
• eBIRForms — used by individual taxpayers and smaller businesses.
• Scanned copies — soft copies of the original 2307s are generally submitted through facilities like the eAFS (Electronic Audited Financial Statement) system, as hard copies are increasingly phased out.

Penalties for getting it wrong

Failing to withhold, remit, or issue the 2307 properly carries real cost. Late or incorrect remittance can draw a surcharge of 25% to 50%, plus annual interest and compromise penalties. In a BIR audit, the related expense can also be disallowed as a deduction — meaning you lose the ability to deduct that payment from taxable income on top of the penalty. Issuing accurate certificates on time is far cheaper than fixing it later.

How to generate BIR Form 2307 quickly

By now the pattern is clear: the 2307 itself is simple, but the volume is what hurts. One alphalist can mean a hundred certificates, each needing the same TIN, ATC code, income figures, and tax withheld — typed in cell by cell, per payee, every quarter.

The slow way

The traditional process is to open the official 2307 PDF and encode each payee by hand. For a business with a handful of suppliers, that's tedious. For a bookkeeper handling several clients, it's hours of repetitive data entry every filing season — and, as we covered earlier, every manual entry is a chance for a wrong ATC, a transposed TIN, or the rate landing where the peso amount belongs.

The fast way: generate from your alphalist

Here's the key insight from the last section: every figure a 2307 needs already exists in your Quarterly Alphalist of Payees. The QAP you file with Form 1601-EQ contains each payee's TIN, name, income payment, ATC, and tax withheld — exactly the fields the certificate requires. So instead of retyping it, you can map it straight onto the form:

1. Export your alphalist as an Excel file from your accounting system.
2. Upload it to FormPH.
3. Review the parsed payees and totals on screen.
4. Confirm your payor details, the quarter, and the months.
5. Download a ZIP bundle — one correctly-filled Form 2307 per payee, ready to sign and submit.

What used to take an afternoon takes about a minute. And because the numbers are read directly from your own figures, each certificate matches what you actually remitted — so your 2307s, QAP, and 1601-EQ reconcile, which is exactly what survives a TIN-matching check.

For the full walkthrough, including how the income × rate = tax withheld validation works on every row, see our guide on how to generate BIR Form 2307 in bulk.

Built for Philippine businesses. FormPH follows the official BIR Form 2307 (January 2018 ENCS) format, supports all EWT ATC codes, and processes files in memory only — nothing is stored on disk. You can start free with 10 forms included, no credit card required.

Frequently asked questions about BIR Form 2307

Is BIR Form 2307 the same as Form 2316?

No. Form 2307 certifies creditable Expanded Withholding Tax on payments to non-employees — contractors, freelancers, suppliers, and professionals. Form 2316 certifies withholding tax on the compensation of regular employees. If you're paid as an employee, you receive a 2316; if you're paid as a contractor or supplier, you receive a 2307.

Can I file my income tax return without a 2307?

You can file, but you won't be able to claim the withheld tax as a credit without the certificate. That means you'd effectively pay tax twice on the same income — once when it was withheld at source, and again when you file. Always collect every 2307 before filing so you can offset what you owe.

What if my client refuses to issue a 2307?

Issuing the form is mandatory for the withholding agent — non-issuance is a violation of Section 2.58.3 of Revenue Regulations No. 2-98, not an optional courtesy. Start with a polite written request to the client's accounting or accounts-payable team. If they still won't comply, you can escalate with a formal demand letter referencing their statutory duty, and ultimately file a complaint with the BIR. It also helps to keep your own proof — invoices, official receipts, and payment records showing the EWT deduction.

Is Form 2307 issued monthly or quarterly?

For Expanded Withholding Tax, the 2307 is issued on or before the 20th day of the month following the close of the taxable quarter — so quarterly, in practice — or immediately upon the payee's request when payment is made. The deadlines differ for percentage tax and VAT withholding.

What's the EWT rate for freelancers and professionals?

For an individual professional, it's generally 5% if their gross income for the year doesn't exceed ₱3 million and they've submitted a sworn declaration, or 10% if income exceeds ₱3 million, they're VAT-registered, or no sworn declaration is on file. The exact rate depends on the income type and the payee's circumstances.

Is a digital or scanned copy of Form 2307 valid?

Yes. The BIR's electronic facilities — including eBIRForms and the eAFS (Electronic Audited Financial Statement) portal — allow scanned copies of Form 2307 to be submitted with your return. Keep the originals on file, as the BIR can request them during an audit.

What do I do if there's a mistake on a 2307 I already issued?

Issue a corrected form promptly — the payee needs accurate figures to claim their credit. Keep copies of both the original and the corrected certificate for your audit trail.

Get your BIR Form 2307s done in minutes

The 2307 is straightforward in principle — certify the tax you withheld, issue it to each payee, keep your figures reconciled. The difficulty is volume and accuracy at scale, especially when filing season arrives and every payee needs a certificate that matches your alphalist exactly.

That's the part worth automating. Upload your alphalist once and generate a correctly-filled Form 2307 for every payee — BIR-compliant, ready to sign and submit. Start free with 10 forms included, no credit card required.