BIR Form 2316

BIR Form 2316 is each employee's yearly certificate of compensation paid and tax withheld. Sahora prepares one per employee from the year's approved payrolls and any earlier pay on file, printed on the BIR's own form. This guide shows how to check, sign and download them.

Before you start

• Fill in your BIR registration (TIN, registered name and address, ZIP code, RDO code, signatory and position) in Company setup → Payroll settings (see BIR details and your work place). Until you do, the screen says so and those parts of the form print blank.
• For each employee, check their TIN, address and whether This company is the employee's Main employer or Secondary employer on their record.
• If an employee joined this year from another employer, or you moved to Sahora mid-year, enter that pay under Previous employer and earlier pay this year on the employee's page (see Moving to Sahora mid-year).

Open the year's certificates

1. Open Reports and click BIR 2316.
2. Choose the Year and click Apply.

Each row shows the employee's gross pay (item 19), non-taxable pay (20), taxable pay (23), tax due (24), tax withheld (28), whether they qualify for substituted filing and whether the certificate is signed. Click PDF to open one employee's certificate.

Some rows have notes, for example a missing TIN or tax still due. Open them and fix what you can before you give out the certificates.

Provisional and final certificates

A certificate is final once the year has ended, or once the employee's last day has passed if they left during the year. Before that, the PDF is marked "PROVISIONAL" and carries no signatures, because the figures will still change. A provisional certificate can't be signed.

Add the employer's signature

An Owner / Management user can add the signatory's signature image once; it prints on every final 2316.

1. Under Employer signature, click Choose the signature image and pick a PNG or JPEG with a white or transparent background (up to 1 MB).
2. Click Upload. To change it later, use Replace or Remove.

Get each employee's signature

Each employee signs their final certificate, which substituted filing needs:

• In the portal: the employee opens BIR 2316 and signs on the screen (see Your BIR Form 2316).
• On paper: print the PDF, have it signed, then click Upload scanned copy on the employee's row, pick the PDF, PNG or JPEG (up to 2 MB) and click Save. Owners and payroll officers can do this.

The Signed column shows how each one was signed. If the figures change after the employee signed (for example after an adjustment), the signature is no longer printed and the row shows "Not signed" again. Ask the employee to sign the new figures.

Download all certificates

1. Click Download all (n) as ZIP.

The ZIP has one PDF per employee, named by surname, TIN and year-end date as the BIR asks for soft copies. These copies are not password-protected, so you can print, sign and submit them. Employees' own copies in the portal are locked with their birth date.

Give each employee their signed copy, and submit the copies for substituted filing to the BIR, by the due dates in your filing calendar.

Substituted filing

Sahora marks Substituted filing "Yes" when the employee had no previous employer this year, your company is their main employer, and the tax due equals the tax withheld. Check this against what you know of the employee, for example other income they have told you about.

What can go wrong

• "This certificate is provisional until the year ends (or the employee's last day); a signed copy can be recorded then.": wait until the certificate is final.
• "The image is larger than 1 MB." or "The file is larger than 2 MB.": make the file smaller and try again.
• A row says tax is still due or refundable: see Year-end.

Good to know

• Owners, payroll officers and Finance can open the certificates, since they show each employee's TIN. Only owners change the employer signature.
• The 1604-C alphalist comes from the same figures (see BIR Form 1604-C and the alphalist).