Hiring and paying freelancers in the Philippines: contracts, invoices, rates and how the money arrives

Short answer. Hire the freelancer under a simple contractor agreement, ask for an invoice in dollars or pesos with their tax ID and bank details (BDO, BPI, Metrobank), and pay the invoice from your Storspay balance: the exact pesos figure lands usually within minutes at the mid-market rate for 1% all-in, and both sides get a receipt with the invoice number. The freelancer needs no account and no app.

Who hires in the Philippines

Companies in the US, Canada, the UK and Europe hire Filipino developers, designers, writers, analysts, support agents and virtual assistants — the sectors are BPO and customer-support teams, virtual assistants, developers and designers, nursing and healthcare recruitment agencies, accounting and bookkeeping firms, e-commerce operations teams — mostly in Metro Manila (Makati, BGC, Ortigas), Cebu, Davao, Clark and Iloilo. The freelancer is a sole trader: they invoice, you pay, they handle their own tax.

The three documents

A contractor agreement (scope, rate, intellectual property, termination), a monthly or milestone invoice with the freelancer's tax ID and bank account, and the Storspay receipt that matches it. That is the file your accountant wants and the file the freelancer's bank may ask for.

Paying ten freelancers at once

Run Payroll pays the whole list in one batch — type each amount or upload a CSV — with one fee line and one statement. Each freelancer receives their own transfer, in pesos, with their own invoice reference. If one of them is also on Storspay as a sole trader, that payment is free and instant.

What is different about the Philippines

The Philippines is the world's second-largest BPO market and the home of the virtual assistant: millions of Filipinos are paid every fortnight by companies in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. They are used to being paid to a BDO, BPI or UnionBank account by InstaPay in minutes — and to losing several per cent of each payment to the platform or the bank in between. Storspay delivers pesos at the mid-market rate with the 1% shown separately, and a fortnightly run for a whole team is one batch, one fee line, one receipt.

How a payment to the Philippines works on Storspay

1. Fund your balance in USD (ACH or wire), CAD (Interac e-Transfer or EFT), GBP (UK bank transfer) or EUR (SEPA) — to account details in your own business name. Funding is free.
2. Add the recipient once: their name as it appears on the account, the bank (BDO, BPI, Metrobank, UnionBank, Landbank, Security Bank, RCBC and the other BSP-supervised banks) and the account number. Storspay checks the account name before you confirm.
3. Type the amount in either box. Enter what you want to send and see the pesos that land, or type the pesos figure on the invoice and see what it costs you. The rate is the mid-market rate; the 1% is on its own line.
4. Confirm. The money goes over InstaPay or PESONet and usually lands within minutes — the same business day at most. The recipient gets a notification with the exact amount, and you get a receipt with the invoice reference.

Nobody in the Philippines has to sign up, install an app or touch anything other than their own bank account. Everything on the recipient side looks like an ordinary domestic transfer.

What it costs

Storspay charges 1% all-in on payments to the Philippines, with a minimum of US$2, at the mid-market rate. That one line covers conversion, settlement and delivery; there is no FX markup, no intermediary-bank charge and nothing deducted on the recipient side.

Rates in this guide are the mid-market rate on the day of writing (1 USD = 62.8267 PHP); the calculator on the homepage shows today's. Large payments are split automatically under the local channel cap, under one reference and one fee.

See what your team in the Philippines receives →

Questions businesses ask before the first payment to the Philippines

Should I pay in dollars or pesos?

Agree the rate in whichever currency the contract uses; Storspay shows both figures before you confirm, so a dollar-denominated invoice lands as the right number of pesos at the mid-market rate.

Is there withholding tax?

For an independent contractor in the Philippines, you pay the invoice in full and the freelancer handles their own income tax locally. If your home tax authority requires a form from foreign contractors (for example a W-8BEN for US payers), collect it at onboarding.

Can the freelancer hold dollars instead?

Yes, if they open a free Storspay sole-trader account: then they get USD account details in their own name, hold dollars, and cash out to their Filipino bank whenever they choose. See Storspay for freelancers.

Can you pay GCash or Maya?

Not yet — Storspay pays Philippine bank accounts today, and e-wallets are on the roadmap. Most GCash and Maya users also hold a BDO, BPI, UnionBank or Landbank account.

How fast does a peso payment land?

Usually within minutes through InstaPay; larger amounts may route through PESONet and land the same business day.

Does the contractor pay anything on their side?

No. You pay 1% all-in (minimum US$2); the contractor receives the peso amount shown. Their bank does not charge for an incoming domestic credit.

Who this is for — and who it is not for

Storspay is for businesses and organisations: companies, agencies, schools, hospitals, facilitators, foundations and sole traders paying other businesses and professionals for work, goods and services. A sole trader counts as a business and signs up in their own name.

What Storspay is not is a personal money-transfer service. We do not open personal accounts, and every payment has to be a business transaction: an invoice, a contract, a fee note, work delivered. Money to family and personal transfers are not what this is, and we would rather say so now than at verification.