What is BIR Form 1701?

Its official title is Annual Income Tax Return For Individuals (including MIXED Income Earner), Estates and Trusts. The words in capitals are the point: 1701 is the form for someone with more than one kind of income, and for estates and trusts.

How do I know if I am a mixed income earner?

You draw compensation from an employer and also earn from a business or profession in the same year. Someone employed who also freelances is mixed income. If either side stands alone, a different form applies.

On or before April 15 of each year, covering income for the preceding taxable year. That is the same deadline as 1700, 1701A and 1707-A.

What is the difference between 1701 and 1701A?

1701A is for individuals earning income PURELY from business or profession, and only for those under the graduated rates using the optional standard deduction, or those who opted for the 8% flat rate. If you itemise deductions, or you have compensation income as well, you are on 1701.

The Annual Income Tax Return for Individuals Classified as Micro and Small Taxpayers. Micro means gross sales below ₱3,000,000, and small means gross sales of ₱3,000,000 to less than ₱20,000,000.

Do I have to file quarterly too?

If you have business or professional income, yes. Form 1701Q is the Quarterly Income Tax Return for Individuals, Estates and Trusts, filed on or before May 15 for the first quarter, August 15 for the second and November 15 for the third.

Can I skip filing entirely?

Only in the situations BIR lists for Form 1700, and they are narrow: taxable income not over ₱250,000, pure compensation with tax correctly withheld under Section 79, sole income already subjected to final withholding under Section 57(A), or a minimum wage earner. Anyone drawing compensation from two or more employers during the year must file.

What rates does the return apply?

The graduated rates under Section 24(A)(2) as amended by TRAIN. Nothing on the first ₱250,000, then 20% to 35% on the excess in five bands, unless you validly opted for the 8% flat rate.

BIR Form 1701: Which Annual ITR You Actually File

Searching for “BIR Form 1701” is usually a question about which form, not about that one. BIR publishes four annual returns for individuals and they are distinguished by where your income comes from.

The four, in BIR’s own titles

Form	Official title
1700	Annual Income Tax Return For Individuals Earning Purely Compensation Income (Including Non-Business/Non-Profession Related Income)
1701	Annual Income Tax Return For Individuals (including MIXED Income Earner), Estates and Trusts
1701A	Annual Income Tax Return For Individuals Earning Income PURELY from Business/Profession
1701-MS	Annual Income Tax Return for Individuals Classified as Micro and Small Taxpayers

BIR capitalises MIXED and PURELY in its own list, which is the fastest way to place yourself.

Choosing between them

Your income	Form
Salary only	1700
Business or profession only, using OSD or the 8% flat rate	1701A
Business or profession only, itemising deductions	1701
Salary and business or profession	1701
An estate or a trust	1701
Classified micro or small	1701-MS

The trap sits in the third row. 1701A’s full title restricts it to those under the graduated income tax rates with OSD as mode of deduction OR those who opted to avail of the 8% flat income tax rate. Itemise your deductions instead and 1701A is not available to you, even though your income is purely from business.

1701-MS is the newest of the four, and it turns on size rather than income type:

Classification	Gross sales
Micro	Below ₱3,000,000
Small	₱3,000,000 to less than ₱20,000,000

The ₱3,000,000 figure also decides eligibility for the 8% flat rate, which is available where sales, receipts and other non-operating income do not exceed it. The freelancer tax guide compares the 8% option against the graduated rates with a worked table.

The deadlines

Return	Due
1700, 1701, 1701A, 1707-A	On or before April 15, for the preceding taxable year
1701Q, 1st quarter	May 15
1701Q, 2nd quarter	August 15
1701Q, 3rd quarter	November 15

If you file 1701, you almost certainly file 1701Q three times a year as well. The annual return is a reckoning of quarters already declared, not a substitute for them.

When you need not file at all

BIR lists four situations where Form 1700 need not be filed:


Taxable income does not exceed ₱250,000.00
Pure compensation income with tax correctly withheld under Section 79
Sole income already subjected to final withholding tax under Section 57(A)
A minimum wage earner as defined in Section 22(HH)

With one hard exception: an individual deriving compensation concurrently from two or more employers at any time during the year must file. Two jobs removes the exemption even if each employer withheld correctly.

None of these exemptions reach 1701. Business or professional income means a return.

The rates the return applies

Net taxable income	Tax
Not over ₱250,000.00	0%
Over ₱250,000.00 to ₱400,000.00	20% of the excess
Over ₱400,000.00 to ₱800,000.00	₱30,000.00 plus 25% of the excess
Over ₱800,000.00 to ₱2,000,000.00	₱130,000.00 plus 30% of the excess
Over ₱2,000,000.00 to ₱8,000,000.00	₱490,000.00 plus 32% of the excess
Over ₱8,000,000.00	₱2,410,000.00 plus 35% of the excess

The income tax table guide explains how those fixed amounts are built, and the income tax calculator applies the schedule.

Filing it

Either electronically or manually. RA 11976 rewrote Section 236 so that a taxpayer files a return either electronically or manually and pays the same way. The eFPS guide maps BIR’s systems, and the eBIRForms guide covers the offline package. The ITR filing guide covers the wider calendar, and BIR Form 2316 is the certificate your employer gives you for the compensation half of a mixed income return.

Where this goes wrong

Using 1701A while itemising deductions. 1701A is limited to OSD or the 8% rate.

Filing 1700 when you also freelance. Any business or professional income makes it 1701.

Treating the annual return as the only filing. 1701Q is due three times a year.

Assuming two employers means someone else handled it. Concurrent employment during the year removes the no-filing exemption.

Missing that 1701-MS exists. Micro and small classifications are size-based and have their own return.