Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB)
Definition
Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB)
The Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) is the Philippine body that grants, reviews and tracks tax perks given to registered firms. Chaired by the Department of Finance, it decides which projects keep their tax breaks, for how long, and on what terms.
FIRB has existed since the 1970s as a fiscal watchdog. The Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act, or CREATE, made it far more powerful in 2021, handing it approval power that once sat with individual promotion agencies.
That law, Republic Act 11534, signed in March 2021, rewrote the whole incentives regime. It capped how long perks last, tied them to a priority plan, and put one board in charge of the biggest projects.
For outsourcing this matters. When the pandemic pushed IT and business process management firms into remote work, FIRB rulings decided whether firms in economic zones kept their tax incentives while staff worked from home.
Key takeaways
- FIRB grants, reviews and monitors tax incentives for registered business enterprises across the Philippines.
- The Secretary of Finance chairs the board and the Secretary of Trade and Industry co-chairs it.
- CREATE, or Republic Act 11534, expanded its powers over every investment promotion agency in 2021.
- Large projects need FIRB sign-off; smaller ones stay with the agency that registered them.
- Its rulings on remote work decided whether Philippine BPO firms kept their incentives.
How it works
FIRB works as a board, not an office. The Secretary of Finance chairs it, the Secretary of Trade and Industry co-chairs, and other cabinet officials sit as members. Its secretariat runs out of the Department of Finance.
The rest of the board includes the Executive Secretary, the Secretary of Budget and Management, and the head of the national planning agency. That mix is deliberate — incentives are a spending decision as much as an investment one.
The process is layered. You apply to an investment promotion agency, the body that registers and hosts your project, it evaluates and endorses, and FIRB reviews that endorsement before an incentive is granted or refused.
The board doesn’t approve everything itself. Agencies such as PEZA still grant incentives directly for projects below a value threshold. Anything above that line goes up to FIRB — and the board can say no.
The incentives themselves come from a fixed menu.
| Incentive | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Income tax holiday | zero income tax for a set number of years |
| Special corporate income tax | a 5% rate on gross income in place of most other taxes |
| Enhanced deductions | extra deductions on power, labour, training and research spend |
| Duty exemption | no customs duty on qualifying imported capital equipment |
| VAT exemption and zero rating | relief on qualifying imports and local purchases |
Incentives aren’t automatic. Your activity has to appear on the Strategic Investment Priority Plan, the national list of favoured sectors, and you have to keep hitting the performance targets written into your registration.
FIRB also polices what it grants. It can review, suspend or withdraw incentives when a registered firm misses its commitments, and it reports the cost of every perk granted so the public can see the bill.
The board publishes its resolutions and issuances on the FIRB website, so you can check what’s actually in force.
Examples
FIRB’s decisions show up in real business outcomes. The clearest case is the remote work fight, when registered IT and business process management firms had to ask the board for permission to keep incentives while staff stayed home.
The rules moved more than once. FIRB allowed zone-registered IT-BPM firms to run part of their workforce remotely without losing incentives, extended that allowance repeatedly, then set a deadline that finally bit.
Industry pushed back hard. The IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines, the sector’s main trade group, argued that stripping incentives over remote work would push seats to competing offshore markets.
The escape route mattered more than the argument. Firms registered with PEZA could move their registration to the Board of Investments, which carries no economic-zone requirement, and keep incentives with staff working from anywhere.
FIRB also signs off on headline investments. Large manufacturing, energy and data centre projects clear the board because their investment capital sits above the delegated threshold, and the board weighs the tax cost against the jobs promised.
Its oldest job still runs. FIRB reviews tax subsidies to government-owned corporations, a housekeeping role from the 1970s that keeps the board’s remit wider than investment promotion alone.
The cost effect is blunt. A seat in an incentivised zone can carry a much lower tax burden than the same seat outside it, so a change in FIRB policy moves your provider’s price floor — not just their paperwork.
Ask your provider where it’s registered. A BPO inside a PEZA zone, one registered with the Board of Investments, and one with no registration at all sit on three different cost bases.
Related terms
FIRB sits inside a cluster of Philippine investment and tax bodies. Knowing which one you actually deal with saves time, because the agency that registers you is rarely the same one that sets the rules above it.
- Board of Investments (BOI): the promotion agency that registers projects outside the special economic zones.
- Department of Trade and Industry (DTI): the department whose secretary co-chairs FIRB and oversees the Board of Investments.
- National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA): the planning agency whose director general sits on the board.
- Foreign Direct Investments (FDI): the cross-border capital flows that fiscal incentives are designed to attract.
- Tax-Exempt Income: the category of earnings that an income tax holiday effectively creates.
FAQ
What does FIRB do?
It grants, reviews and monitors tax incentives for registered business enterprises in the Philippines. It also handles tax subsidies for government-owned corporations, and it can suspend or withdraw perks when a company misses the commitments in its registration.
Who chairs FIRB?
The Secretary of Finance chairs the board and the Secretary of Trade and Industry co-chairs it. The Executive Secretary, the Budget Secretary and the head of the national planning agency complete the membership, and the secretariat sits inside the Department of Finance.
When does a project need FIRB approval instead of an agency’s?
It depends on the size of the investment. Projects below the delegated threshold are approved by the agency that registers them; larger ones go to FIRB. CREATE set that line at one billion pesos, and the 2024 CREATE MORE amendments raised it.
How did FIRB affect work from home in the BPO sector?
FIRB decided whether IT-BPM firms registered in economic zones could keep their incentives while staff worked remotely. The rules changed several times, and the lasting fix let affected firms move their registration to the Board of Investments instead.
Is FIRB the same as PEZA?
No. PEZA is an investment promotion agency that registers and hosts locators inside economic zones, while FIRB is the oversight board that approves the larger incentive packages and sets policy above every agency.
Does FIRB set the incentives itself?
No — the CREATE law sets the menu of incentives and how long they last, while FIRB decides who qualifies.
If your incentives position shapes where you deliver, start with the OA outsourcing hubs guide to see which Philippine locations fit your delivery plan.
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