- Ice Ledger

1. VAT Scheme

Based on your VAT registration, you may calculate your VAT return based on figures from sales and purchase invoices (Standard VAT scheme) or on monies spent / received (Cash Accounting) or you may be on a Flat Rate Scheme, based on your business industry. Please make sure you have the correct VAT scheme selected in system configurations (Settings / Configurations / Company / Details).

2. Start & End Dates

To process your VAT return, simply set the correct start and end dates for your VAT return period and click OK to calculate the figures for your return. Summary VAT Return figures are shown on the screen, to the right and a print dialogue screen is presented to enable you to print the VAT report. It is IMPORTANT that you produce a full VAT report to check that return figures that are calculated are derived from correct entries; make sure there are no errors or omissions (see 6 and 7, below).

3. Include Previous Un-reconciled Transactions

Occasionally you may find that after you have completed your VAT return, you have transactions for this period that were not on the system. In which case, on your next VAT return, these will be shown as old transactions (i.e. before your new VAT return period) that have been un-reconciled and should be included in your now current VAT retrun. Simply check this box to include these transactions.

4. Include Reconciled Transactions Within this Period

Occasionally you may find that you have accidentally marked some transactions, within the current VAT return period, as reconciled before you have done your actual VAT return report. If this is the case, you can include these transaction by placing atick in this box.

5. Summary

Before submitting your VAT return, it is reccomended that you untick this Summary box to produce a detailed VAT report that you can then check to make sure that all the data entries are correct and that there are no errors, ommisions or entries that should not be included.

6. Calculated Tax Figures

This section displays the date & time and the logged-in user ID when the VAT return report was generated, above the actual summary VAT return figures. If there is any VAT to be paid to HMRC (Box 5) then this entry (Net VAT to be paid to Customs by you) will be highlighted in blue. However, if you are due any VAT back from HMRC then this entry will be shown in Green and will be titled: Net VAT to be claimed from Customs.

If you are registered for or want to submit your VAT returns using the HMRC new digital platform (Making Tax Digital) the please read the guide, MTD - Making Tax Digital.

7. Mark as Reconciled

Once you have completed the VAT return, you should re-run the report for the same date range with this option ticked. This will ensure that the VAT transactions that have just been reported are marked as reconciled and are excluded from future VAT reports. Please be aware that if this option is ticked and you press the OK button, then the respective transactions will be marked as reconciled, irrespective of whether you choose to print the report or press Cancel in the print dialogue screen that follows.