Deadline for Filing First Quarter Income Tax Return for Self-employed Individuals and Professionals

October 30, 2000 BIR RULING NO. 050-00 RMC No. 11-98; 17-98; R.A. 8424; RR No. 7-93 Atty. Domingo C. Salita 41 Mahusay, U.P. Village Quezon City, 3004 S i r : This refers to your letter dated May 19, 1999 requesting this Office to restore the deadline in filing the first quarter income tax return for self-employed individuals and professionals to May 15 of each year. You state that when you filed your first quarter income tax return before the May 15 deadline, you were surprised when told that the same was already late because the due date for filing the adverted return is April 15; that for more than ten (10) years you have been filing your quarterly income tax return in accordance with the prescribed dates, i.e., May 15, August 15, November 15 and April 15; and that the change of date in filing the first quarter income return is unreasonable since there was "no publication to inform the taxpayers" plus the inconvenience in filing the annual income tax return and the first quarter income return on the same date: April 15. In reply, please be informed that the fixing of the deadline in filing the first quarter income return of each year by self-employed individuals and professionals to April 15 of each year is not of our own making. Section 67 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 states that the filing of the first quarter return should be on April 15 of each year. Therefore, the re-statement of the said dates for the filing of the quarterly income tax returns by an individual in R.A. No. 8424, otherwise known as the "Tax Reform Act of 1997" should be viewed as the latest expression of the will of Congress. (Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 11-98 dated April 1, 1998; underlining ours) R.A. No. 8424, was published in the Manila Bulletin on December 26, 1997 and became effective on January 1, 1998. aAcHCT However, for self-employed individuals and professionals who failed to submit their first quarter return for 1998 on April 15, 1998 but nonetheless filed their return on or before May 15, 1998, this Office promulgated Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 17-98 waiving the imposition of surcharge, interest or other penalties for those who failed to file the adverted return on or before the said date (May 15, 1998). Accordingly, your request to restore the deadline for the filing and payment of estimated tax by self-employed individuals and professionals to May 15 for the first quarter of the year, is hereby denied for being contrary to the express provisions of Section 74 of the Tax Code of 1997. Very truly yours, (SGD.) DAKILA B. FONACIER Commissioner of Internal Revenue