Q3 2026 BIR Deadline Moved to Dec 1: Your Pre-Holiday Bookkeeper Checklist

When is the BIR 1702Q deadline for Q3 2026?

Form 1702Q, the Quarterly Income Tax Return for corporations, partnerships, and other non-individual taxpayers, is due on Tuesday, December 1, 2026, not November 29. The statutory 60-day deadline after the close of Q3 lands on November 29, which is a Sunday this year, and November 30 is Bonifacio Day, a regular holiday. Under Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 65-2016, a deadline that falls on a weekend or holiday moves to the next working day, so this one slides two days, to December 1.

If you're relying on a calendar reminder set last year, or a tax calendar that hasn't been updated for 2026's specific calendar, this is the detail that catches people out. The underlying rule, within 60 days of each of the first three quarters, hasn't changed. Only this year's actual date has.

What's the difference between the 1701Q and 1702Q deadlines?

Form 1701Q (for self-employed individuals and professionals) and Form 1702Q (for corporations, partnerships, and other juridical entities) are not the same filing, and they don't share a deadline. For Q3 2026:

• Form 1701Q is statutorily due November 15, also a Sunday, which moves it to Monday, November 16, 2026.
• Form 1702Q is statutorily due November 29, which moves to Tuesday, December 1, 2026, for the reasons above.

If your business has both individual and corporate filing obligations (a common setup for owner-operators who also run a registered entity), confusing these two dates is one of the easier mistakes to make. Mark them separately.

One more date worth flagging: if you're claiming creditable withholding tax credits backed by Form 2307, the Summary Alphalist of Withholding Taxes (SAWT) attachment follows the same weekend/holiday logic and also moves to December 1, 2026.

What has to be true before you file

Before you touch either return, four things should already be in place:

• Bank and cash accounts reconciled through September 30. An unreconciled account is the single most common source of a wrong Q3 number.
• Revenue and expense figures finalized for the quarter, with supporting documentation on hand in case of a BIR inquiry.
• Withholding tax certificates (2307s) received from customers accounted for and matched against what's actually recorded in your books.
• Prior quarters' figures confirmed. Both 1701Q and 1702Q are cumulative returns: Q3's computation builds on Q1 and Q2, not just July-to-September activity in isolation. An error carried from an earlier quarter doesn't stay contained; it understates or overstates what you owe now.

The short version: reconcile first, file second. Filing on unreconciled figures doesn't save time: it just moves the rework to Q4, once an error surfaces.

How do you compute 13th-month pay accrual?

13th-month pay is one-twelfth (1/12) of an employee's total basic salary earned during the calendar year, under Presidential Decree 851 and its implementing rules. That means it should be accruing gradually every month, not calculated for the first time when December arrives. Basic salary excludes overtime pay, holiday pay, night shift differential, and allowances, unless your company's own policy folds them in. It's payable to rank-and-file employees not later than December 24, and it's prorated for anyone with less than 12 months of service in the year.

The risk this creates if accrual hasn't been tracked monthly: the December computation surfaces a number larger than expected, right when cash is already stretched by other year-end demands. The check to run now, before that happens: pull year-to-date basic salary per employee, and confirm the running 13th-month accrual matches 1/12 of that total so far. If it doesn't, that's the gap to close in November, not discover in December.

How does NCR-28 affect 13th-month pay?

If any of your employees are covered by Wage Order NCR-28, the ₱60-per-day increase to the NCR minimum wage, effective September 26, 2026, which raised the non-agriculture rate from ₱695 to ₱755 (see our full breakdown of what changed and who's covered), their basic salary for the year now blends two different rates: the pre-September 26 rate and the post-September 26 rate. A 13th-month estimate based on "last year's formula" or a flat annualized version of the new rate will be wrong in either direction, depending on headcount and timing.

The fix is mechanical, not complicated: compute 13th-month off actual basic salary earned, month by month, rather than projecting one rate across the full year. If your payroll system isn't already doing this automatically, this is the month to check it by hand for anyone near the minimum wage threshold.

Other pre-holiday closing tasks worth front-loading

Beyond the two deadlines and 13th-month pay, a handful of recurring tasks get harder once the holidays start, not because the work itself changes, but because the people who do it aren't around:

• Bank and account reconciliations for the months leading into the holidays, done ahead of time rather than in a scramble once staff start taking leave.
• AR/AP cleanup. Chase outstanding receivables and payables now; collection and payment follow-up get noticeably harder once the holiday slowdown sets in.
• Payroll cutoff confirmation. If your holiday schedule means an earlier cutoff or adjusted disbursement date, communicate and confirm it with the team well ahead of time, not the week it happens.
• Physical inventory count scheduling, if applicable to your business. Plan this before staff availability drops, not after.

Your dated checklist: today through December 24

This is the part to work from directly, built using the corrected dates above.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Trusting last year's date from memory. Nov 29 and Nov 15 are the rule, not the actual date, every year; both can and do shift. Check the current calendar, not the one in your head.
• Confusing the 1701Q and 1702Q deadlines when a business has both individual and non-individual filing obligations.
• Waiting until December to calculate 13th-month pay instead of checking accrual monthly.
• Not adjusting the 13th-month estimate for NCR-28's mid-year wage change, resulting in an under- or over-accrued figure.
• Filing Q3 figures without reconciling first, creating rework if discrepancies surface later.

How CloudCFO helps

If you're the one person handling this list on top of everything else, you're not alone in that; it's the most common setup we see at growing PH SMEs. CloudCFO's bookkeeping and payroll teams, led by CPAs with over a decade of experience, can take the reconciliation, filing, and 13th-month computation work off your plate, with deadlines tracked in real time so nothing slips through during your busiest closing stretch. It's support for the person doing the work, not just advice for the person reading the summary.

FAQs

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Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes and isn't a substitute for professional tax or legal advice specific to your business. Dates, rates, and penalty figures reflect information verified as of November 3, 2026; BIR deadlines can shift again due to a new Revenue Memorandum Circular, a calamity declaration, or other advisory, so confirm the current date against the BIR's own published tax calendar before you rely on it, or speak with your accountant or the BIR directly.