VAT reporting and payment

VAT reporting and payment

VAT close is a repeatable sequence: compute the VAT summary from stored invoice and journal data, export the filing artifacts as repository data, then record the payment as a normal ledger transaction. The goal is that both the computed VAT numbers and the evidence used to file them remain reviewable in the revision history. Which reporting period (monthly, quarterly, or yearly) and which date drives period allocation (performance, invoice, or cash) are set in the workspace via bus config; bus vat reads those settings when it allocates transactions to tax periods and produces reports.

  1. Alice computes the VAT summary for the reporting period:
bus vat report --period 2026Q1

The VAT module scans invoices and/or journal entries from Jan–Mar 2026, separates output VAT on sales from input VAT on purchases, and prints a summary such as:

VAT Summary Q1 2026:
Sales (taxable) total: €1000
Output VAT (@25.5%): €255
Purchases (tax-deductible) total: €200
Input VAT (@25.5%): €51
----------------------------
VAT payable: €204

When invoice data is incomplete or absent (e.g. journal-first migration), use bus vat report --period 2026Q1 --source journal to compute from journal postings and VAT account mappings; see bus vat. Direction can be supplied at row level or resolved from vat-account-mapping.csv and accounts.csv; schema and fallback order are documented in the module and module SDD.

  1. Alice exports the VAT output files she will archive alongside the workspace data:
bus vat export --help
bus vat export --period 2026Q1

The module writes period-specific artifacts at the workspace root (for example vat-reports-2026Q1.csv and vat-returns-2026Q1.csv) and updates any index tables used to make those artifacts discoverable as part of the repository data.

  1. After filing, Alice records the VAT payment as a normal journal transaction:
bus journal add --date 2026-04-12 \
--desc "VAT payment for 2026Q1" \
--debit "VAT Payable"=180 \
--credit "Cash"=180

If she prefers to treat the bank statement row as the primary evidence, she can import the next bank statement with bus bank import, identify the VAT payment row with bus bank list, and then record the same journal posting with a description that carries the bank statement reference.

  1. Alice records the VAT close as a new revision using her version control tooling.

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