Vat box 8 cash accounting

HI,

I am swapping from another cloud based system and have hit a problem with my first VAT return.

we use cash accounting basis

we supply goods to other eu member states and have to complete an ec sales list, the box 8 figure on our vat returns is not normally on a cash basis it is the actual value of sales made in the period

This is how i have understood it previously and the previous programs i have used calculated it this way.

However quick file is using figures based upon cash accounting

e.g

sales for jan £1000
sales for feb £1000
sales for March £1000

money received from eu customer in jan £0
money received from eu customer in feb £0
money received from eu customer in mar £1000

previously box 8 would read £3000

quick file reads £1000

after reading about vat and ec sales again today , I believe quick file is showing the wrong figures

However i am prepared to be corrected, i just want to figure an answer 1 way or another

please help

I am no expert but box 8 is “total goods supplied to customers in other EU member states” or something along those lines. So that would be £0 for Jan, Feb and £1,000 for Mar in your example.

I think you may be missing the keyword of “other” somewhere, i.e. sales to EU customers who are not in the UK. Sounds like your other software is including all EU sales (including UK) in box 8.

I believe box 8 is a derivative of box 6, which on a cash accounting VAT return should report cash based figures. Would seem odd to mix cash and accrual figures here. It is possible to use the adjustments tool in the return to modify the box 8 total. We can also look at a possible setting here that will allow both methods to be used.

when, i grab a breakdown from my previous software (clear books)on what amounts it is using it definitely uses invoices from the period to eu customers that have not yet been paid and does not include amount that have been received in the period but where invoiced in the previous period.

if i continue with quick file vat return without modification i will be reporting the same figures twice. i have already reported some figure on my previous return and again on this new return in the next period

i am looking at using this adjustments tool until i get a definitive answer.

Odd as it sounds, HMRC is pretty clear on this one. §16.4 of VAT notice 725 states that

I account for VAT using the cash accounting scheme how should I complete box 8 of the VAT Return?

The value you enter in box 8, should be the total of all intra-EC supplies of goods made in that reporting period (excluding VAT) and not the value of payments received in that period.

So box 8 should be accrual rather than cash based as it has to agree with your EC sales list. However any VAT due (on sales you can’t zero rate as you don’t have evidence of removal) is calculated on a cash basis on payments received (§5.6 of notice 731).

many thanks for your input,

it would appear that quick file is definitely showing the wrong figures for this calculation.

is it possible that quick file will be able to add the correct calculation for the future?

We will certainly look into this within the next week, I will update this thread as soon as we’ve had a chance to look in more detail.

@mathew

We have created a new set of amended policies for calculating box 8 and the ECSL totals on an accrual basis. All you will need to do is go into your VAT Settings area and set the VAT Procedure Version to 2.0.

With version 2.0 QuickFile will calculate the box 8 total on an accrual basis. The ESCL (that can be filed electronically from QF) will also be calculated on an accrual basis.

Hope that helps, please let us know if there’s anything further you’d like us to look at.

This is absolutely perfect and solved the issue 100%. Really impressed with how this has been achieved.

Many thanks for your quick resolution.

I just need monthly EC sales reports now :wink:

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I just noticed this new version option when setting up VAT setting for a client.
Thanks Glenn for this, very much appreciated. (if possible, it will good to have this separately mentioned under knowledge base as well)

I’ll see if we can get this updated shortly :slight_smile:

[Edit]
Just wanted to let you know that we’ve just added this to the knowledge base here

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