The VAT summary sets out a VAT-registered store's VAT period by period, in the boxes of the VAT return: records for your accountant to prepare the return from, never a filed return. It is under Finances for the owner and their accountant, once the business is registered for VAT in Settings, under Business and tax. A store in another country reads its own tax's name.
The boxes
- Box 1
- VAT due in the period on sales and other outputs: the VAT on your sales less the VAT on refunds, each in the period of its own date. On the margin scheme, the VAT on the margin alone; on the Flat Rate Scheme, your flat rate of your sales including VAT.
- Box 4
- VAT reclaimed in the period on purchases and other inputs: on goods bought with orders, on deliveries received, on the sales channel's fees and charges, and on expenses. On the Flat Rate Scheme, only a capital asset's.
- Box 5
- Net VAT to pay to HMRC, or to reclaim from it: box 1 less box 4, as printed.
- Box 6
- Total value of sales and all other outputs, excluding VAT.
- Box 7
- Total value of purchases and all other inputs, excluding VAT.
Each box opens what makes it. Choose the period at the top: This VAT period and Last VAT period follow the VAT period set in Settings, and a period starts no earlier than the day your registration took effect.
How each record's rate is found
A rate is worked out when the books are read, never stamped: a record's own rate, else zero for goods sent abroad, else its listing's, else the standard rate. A product's variants can carry their own rates, and a split order's lines each take their own. So a period already locked is held by the Lock date: a change to a rate that would move a locked period's VAT is refused.
After you file
When a period ends, the page says so. Once its return is filed, lock the books up to the period's last day, so nothing in it can change: see the Lock date. The workbook export carries the summary and, on the margin scheme, HMRC's stock book.
Related: Business and tax, Working with your accountant.
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