Filing the 2550Q, part by part

Meet the 2550Q

The 2550Q is the quarterly value-added tax (VAT) return, filed by the 25th day after each quarter. It has two pages:

We'll fill it in for Kuting Kitchen's third quarter, July to September 2026, due 26 October (the 25th is a Sunday).

Items 1 to 6: which quarter

Mark calendar year, the year end (12/2026), the 3rd quarter, and the return period 07/01/2026 to 09/30/2026.

Answer No to "amended return" unless you're correcting one already filed, and No to "short period return".

Part I: who you are

Copy these exactly from your Certificate of Registration (Form 2303): the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and branch code, the Revenue District Office (RDO) code, the registered name and address.

Item 13 is your taxpayer classification: Kuting Kitchen's ₱4.8M a year makes it Small (₱3M to under ₱20M).

Page 2, items 31 to 34: your sales

Item 31A is VATable sales before VAT: ₱1,200,000. Item 31B is the VAT on them, 12%: ₱144,000. Both come from the sales journal's totals for the quarter.

Item 34 adds up all sales. Kuting Kitchen has no zero-rated or exempt sales, so 32 and 33 stay empty and 34 equals 31.

Items 35 to 37: adjusting output VAT

These handle VAT on sales customers never paid for. Online sales are paid up front, so Kuting Kitchen has nothing here: item 37B, total output VAT, stays ₱144,000.

Items 38 to 43: input VAT from before

If last quarter's input VAT was more than its output VAT, the excess is carried here (item 38). Kuting Kitchen paid VAT last quarter, so there's nothing to carry over.

Items 44 to 50: this quarter's purchases

Item 44, domestic purchases: stock of ₱600,000 plus Shopee, Lazada and TikTok fees of ₱180,000, so ₱780,000 before VAT, with ₱93,600 input VAT (₱72,000 + ₱21,600).

Only purchases backed by a valid VAT invoice go here (Lesson 4.2).

Items 51 to 60: what you can claim

Item 51 totals the input VAT available. Items 52 to 59 take out special cases (big equipment, VAT-exempt sales, unpaid bills), none of which apply here.

So item 60, allowable input VAT, is ₱93,600.

Item 61: the VAT you owe

Output VAT minus allowable input VAT: ₱144,000 − ₱93,600 = ₱50,400.

Part II: the total payable

Item 61 goes back to page 1 as item 15: ₱50,400.

Does Shopee's withholding go in item 16, creditable VAT withheld? No. What Shopee withholds is income tax, so it's claimed on the 1702Q. Item 16 stays empty.

With no other credits and filed on time (no penalties), item 26, the total amount payable, is ₱50,400.

Sign it, then pay

The return is signed by the authorized officer. Part III records the payment details; when you file online and pay through an e-payment channel, the channel's confirmation is your proof. Lesson 6 walks through both.

Remember the Summary List of Sales and Purchases (SLSP): the list behind these totals goes to BIR with the return.

The finished return

Two pages, six numbers that matter: sales, output VAT, purchases, input VAT, VAT due, and the amount paid. Every one of them traces back to the books.