The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has authorized agent banks (ABBs) to open more counters and assign additional personnel to service taxpayers filing their 2009 income tax returns (ITRs).

BIR Commissioner Joel-Tan-Torres stressed the April 15 deadline will not be extended.

In a Bank Bulletin No. 2010-11, Tan-Torres also requested banks to accept two or more checks for single tax liability payment.

He said banks should also accept the so-called out-of-district ITRs without imposing penalties.

"These type of returns must be stamp ‘out of district’ on the face of the returns and batch them for pick-up by the representative of the of the revenue district office having jurisdiction over the collecting bank," Tan-Torres said.

To facilitate the processing of returns, banks were instructed to stamp only three copies of the return and only on the page of the audit certificate, the balance sheet and the income statement and not on every page of the voluminous supporting financial statements.

The BIR has earlier asked banks to extended their banking hours up to 5 from April 5 up to the April 15 deadline.

The banks were also asked to accept photo or Xerox copies of BIR forms and ITRs in lieu of the officially printed forms, provided that the forms are originally filled up and signed by the taxpayer or his duly authorized representative.