How to file a VAT return in ROS from your accounting software

The usual VAT period is two months: January and February, March and April, and so on. The return and payment are due by the 19th of the following month, extended to the 23rd when both go through ROS. A January to February return filed online is therefore due by 23 March.

Revenue describes return preparation options in its ROS help. You can type figures into the online form; third-party software can create a file that you upload through the ROS offline application or online; and some software sends messages signed with your ROS digital certificate. Which route your product supports decides how much typing you do.

HelloBooks takes the first route today: it computes the VAT3 boxes and you enter them in the ROS form. For most small businesses that is a few minutes of typing once the figures are right.

A ten-minute check saves an amended return or a query from Revenue.

• All bank accounts are reconciled to the end of the period.
• Every transaction in the period has a VAT treatment.
• Large purchase claims have a valid VAT invoice behind them.
• Reverse-charge and postponed accounting entries appear on both sides.
• T3 or T4 matches the payment or repayment you expect.

You can pay through ROS by debit instruction or other methods Revenue offers. Paying late attracts interest charged for each day the payment is overdue, so schedule the payment when you file.

Most of these are caught by comparing the figures with the same period last year.

• Entering VAT-inclusive totals in boxes that ask for VAT only.
• Claiming VAT on a purchase without a valid VAT invoice.
• Leaving self-accounted VAT on reverse-charge purchases out of T1.
• Filing a nil return when a repayment is due, or the other way round.
• Missing the 23rd because the payment was not set up in ROS.
• Typing a figure into the wrong box when copying from a report.

Save the ROS acknowledgement and the report behind the figures together. In HelloBooks each VAT3 figure drills back to the transactions and documents behind it, which is what Revenue asks to see in a review.