Online BIR Form Completion Tool (for offline filing)

[snowweb]

Hi, I'm creating an online tool to help people (especially bookkeepers) to complete their BIR tax returns. It does all the calculations for you and then produces a .pdf form that you can print, save or download.

I would love to recieve some feedback please, to help me make it more useful. The website is at http://www.bookkeeper.ph/.

It currently has BIR forms 2550M and 1601-E but I'm continually working on others. I'll be adding the 2550Q and the 1702Q in the next few days. This tool is completely free to use. In the future, I intend to make some money from the site by offering 'online bookkeeping' service, but the BIR form creation is likely to always be free.

Please feel free to register on the site (free) and also, please discuss the tool below so I can make it truly great! It is very simple to register... no need to check your email, it's instantly activated with just a username and password of your choosing.

I have recently added some extra features which will help people who offer bookkeeping services. If you are a bookkeeper and manage several businesses, you can now (after registering yourself), enrol each business that you look after within your login. You can then complete the general details in the profile of each business, so that when you create a form for business 'A', the details at the top are automatically completed for you and then, if you want to complete a form for business 'B', the details at the top of that one, will also be completed, but both, with their correct details.

When you choose to save a form you've created, online, it will be stored under the correct business, keeping your account well organised for easy retrieval.

The details that you enter on the web form are transfered into a .pdf 'on-the-fly' when you press 'Create Form' and you can then either save, download or print it (in triplicate), ready to take it to the BIR / bank for filing.

It is also easy to retrieve an earlier form for editing and refiling.

Please... try it!

Pete

[bingski]

Hi Peter,

You're website is very helpful.  When will the other forms be released?  Does your site have "HELP" option on the comp*tations especially for non-accountants like me?

More power!

[snowweb]

Hi Peter,

Your website is very helpful.  When will the other forms be released?  Does your site have "HELP" option on the comp*tations especially for non-accountants like me?

More power!

Hi Bingski,

Thanks for the complement. I'm pleased to be of service

I'm constantly working on the additional forms but due to financial constraints, it is only me coding! I'm currently working on the 2550Q and the 1702Q. After those I'm planning to add the percentage tax forms. After that, I will review the requests and work accordingly.

I'm hoping to have the 2550Q and the 1702Q released by the end of June.

Regarding a "HELP" option on the comp*tations, the comp*tations are all entirely carried out by the website! There is no need to compute anything. You just enter your data (eg. Your Sales Receipts) in the 'white' fields and all the 'purple' fields will be updated as soon as you leave the current field.

Pleae note that it is important to click elsewhere on the form, after you have entered data in a field, otherwise the form will not be recalculated.

I am planning to add some '?' images in strategic locations on the form, which when you hover over them with the mouse, they will display some additional helpful information. This will hopefully also begin to happen within the next few weeks.

Actually, I created the tool for people just like you who are not accountants and am pleased that it is attracting the right audience! Thanks for your feedback.

Peter

[snowweb]

I've just released the 2550Q online completion tool on http://www.bookkeeper.ph

The available tools now cover the 2550M, 2550Q and the 1601-E.

Perhaps someone would consider sponsoring me to develop additional forms? Please contact me if so.

The website is http://www.bookkeeper.ph and you can contact me using the form on the 'Contact us' page.

Regards

Peter
http://www.bookkeeper.ph

[GOwin]

I'd like to add a comment for Form 1601-E.

If you're rent is less than P 10,000 a month, you're tax exempt. However, you still need to file form 1601E. Using your PDF form generator, it still assesses the 5% fee for rentals below 10,000.

[snowweb]

Hi GOwin,

Thanks for your comment. I've been trying to confirm with the BIR Withholding Tax Division whether rentals of below P10,000 per month are exempt, but they seem to disagree, even though, I asked them to double check their information.

I spoke to a Miss Emma Manimtim at the Withholding Tax Division on 9270998 or 9269351.

Please may I enquire as to the SOURCE of your information? To be honest, I suspect you are correct, but I just can't verify it.

Once I can verify this, I will update the website 1601-E tool accordingly.

Regards, Peter

[snowweb]

With reference to GOwin's post above, I believe I have now got to the bottom of this! I spoke to the assessment officer at San Juan BIR office. He told me that there is such a ruling whereby if your rent is below P10,000 per month, there is no VAT payable on the amount as it is VAT exempt, however, this rule applies ONLY to VAT! It does not apply to EWT, which is payable regardless of the amount of the rent.

I hope this clarifies the issue for everyone. If you or anyone else still believes that this information is not correct, please feel free to post here but please state your source of information, so that I try to verify it.

Regards, Peter

[GOwin]

Thanks for this information.

So, basically these officers are saying that the information posted in their agency's (BIR) website is incorrect.  Please refer to the question #6, letter c FAQ section of their Witholding Tax page: http://www.bir.gov.ph/taxinfo/tax_withld.htm#541.

Let me quote the relevant information from that page:

6. What income payments are subject to Expanded Withholding Tax?
(snip)
c. Rental of real property (in excess of P 10,000) used in business
(snip)

 I would be happy to hear more information on this. Sorry for not posting this link earlier.

[snowweb]

OK. I think I now have the definitive answer

The quote below (from http://www.bir.gov.ph/taxinfo/tax_withld.htm):

6. What income payments are subject to Expanded Withholding Tax?
(snip)
c. Rental of real property (in excess of P 10,000) used in business
(snip)

Is referring to P10,000 ANNUALLY. Not monthly as I'm assuming you thought.

I am verifying this by checking this document ftp://ftp.bir.gov.ph/webadmin1/pdf/1180rr03_17.pdf looking at the bottom of page 3. Read down to section 3.c under 'Rentals'.

Unfortunately I can't copy and paste, since the security permissions set on the document prohibit it (are they afraid someone might quote them??).

This is copied manually from that section:

Personal Properties - On gross rental or lease in excess of P10,000 annually, for the continued use or possession of personal property used in business which the payor or obligator has not taken or is not taking title, or in which he has no equity, except those under financial lease arrangements with leasing and finance companies authorized to operate under Republic Act number 8556 - Five percent.

This is the part that Emma at BIR is pointing me to, substantiate her advice.

So in short, you are correct! (although I'm not sure whether you realized that it is P10,000 per year, not per month)

The 1601-E is monthly form and therefore, in order for my tool to correctly handle this, it would need to take the 'Tax Base' entered and multiply it by 12 (in order to determine whether the annual amount of rental would be above P10,000 per annum). If the the result is above P10,000 then it should apply a "0%" rate and indicate that no tax is payable. Would this solve the problem for you?

Regards, Peter

[GOwin]

if the the result is above P10,000 then it should apply a "0%" rate and indicate that no tax is payable. Would this solve the problem for you?

It should apply a 0% rate if the result is less than, or equal to, not above P10,000.

Pero maraming salamat sa pag-ungkat mo ng mga old rulings.

Whether it's 10,000 a month or 10,000 a year doesn't really matter to me.  Since this "business" is home-based, and I simply operate it from home. If they insist, I could very easily justify that the "business" only occupies a desk space, at most. Hindi nga aabot ang costing ko nito sa 10,000 a year, because  I don't charge the "business" for any rent.

At any rate, I'd like to thank you for helping me clarify this issue. You've been very helpful.

PS.
For other filers, please note that this ruling we're discussing is covered by REVENUE REGULATIONS NO. 17-2003, section 3. (aka RR17-2003 sec. 3) issued on March 31, 2003.

PPS
I find it weird that you cant copy/paste from the said PDF document, coz I can. Maybe because I don't use Adobe Acrobat Reader.

[snowweb]

PPS
I find it weird that you cant copy/paste from the said PDF document, coz I can. Maybe because I don't use Adobe Acrobat Reader.

It is weird, since I'm using Foxit Reader 2.0 to open the document and it specifically blames the security permissions, in it's error message. Maybe your reader doesn't check the permissions? I'd like to have a reader like that! Would you mind sharing the name of it - perhaps I'll get it, so I can circumvent the permissions when I need to!

Anyway, regarding the issue under discussion, I'm also in the similar situation to you. I'm renting an apartment for P8,000 pm although I've asked my landlord to give me two contracts, one for P6,000 for our personal space and another for P2,000 for the room I use for the office. Therefore I only need to pay P100 EWT each month on the P2,000 portion (I'm shy to actually withhold it from the private landlord, so I just shoulder it myself).

I guess, taking into account the Revenue Regulation No. 17-2003, section 3 discussed above, I should have split it, so that I pay only P800 per month for the business space! Then we would be exempt from EWT on our business rental of space. Oh well, we live and learn (and pay taxes!).

Since I suspect that there are very few paying less than P833 per month for their business space rental, I'm not planning to amend the online tool to cope with this. However, if others reading this topic, need the tool updated. Please email me to let me know (peter at snowweb.net) or post here. If there are enough requests, I'll update the calculations performed by the tool.

Kind regards, Peter

[GOwin]

Peter,

I use e-vince, in Linux. I'm not sure if there's a Windows port of this app. I was just checking to verify the document properties of 1180rr03_17.pdf. It indicates that there are no embedded security restrictions for this particular document. I do know, that e-vince actually respects the security settings of PDFs (it reads other formats too: Postscript, djvu, tiff, dvi) 'coz I've encountered restricted documents before.

As for your issue regarding your business in your apartment, we're basically in the same boat.  My  opinion is that you don't need  a separate contract from your landlord since you already have a contract that basically says you're allowed to use that particular unit. What I did was to simply ask the landlord to issue me a certification that he is allowing me to use my apartment as a business address.

As for the online version, I guess they're fine as is.  I actually do my own PDF editing from home.

Cheers and many thanks.