The Return of Trading Details (RTD) in Ireland, explained

The RTD restates your year by rate. Sales go into bands for each Irish VAT rate, along with zero-rated and exempt supplies, and purchases are split in the same way. EU and import figures are reported too. All amounts exclude VAT, so they are the net values behind the VAT on your bi-monthly returns.

Revenue uses the RTD to compare what you charged at each rate with what businesses like yours usually charge. A café whose sales are almost all at the standard rate, or a builder with no reduced-rate work, will stand out.

The RTD covers your accounting year and is due through ROS by the 23rd of the following month. For a company with a 31 December year end, that means 23 January. It is a separate return from the VAT3 for the final period of the year, which follows its own deadline.

You cannot fix the RTD at year end without reopening the year. If a supplier invoice was coded at 23% when it carried 13.5%, the VAT3 for that period was wrong and the RTD will be wrong too. The work that matters happens at the transaction, every time a line is coded.

Rate changes add risk. Food service and hairdressing moved from 13.5% to 9% on 1 July 2026, so a 2026 RTD for a restaurant or a salon will show sales at both rates, split at that date.

In HelloBooks every transaction carries the VAT rate that drove its treatment, so the rate totals for the year come straight from the ledger. Review the totals against the sum of your VAT3s, investigate any difference, and enter the figures in ROS. HelloBooks does not submit the RTD for you.

If something does not reconcile, correct it in the ledger first and let the totals follow.

• Total sales and purchases on the RTD reconcile to the year’s VAT3s.
• Each rate band contains the kind of supplies you expect.
• No sale is coded exempt when it should be zero-rated, or the reverse.
• Any rate change during the year is reflected on the right side of its date.