VAT Returns
How the VAT page lists your VAT returns, with HMRC connected or not: what each comes to and when it’s due, the figures behind it, and sending it to HMRC, downloading it for your accountant or marking it as sent.
Open Reports > Tax > VAT to see your VAT returns: what each one comes to, when it's due, and whether it's gone. It works with HMRC connected or not. Connected, you send your returns to HMRC from here. Not connected, you download each return for your accountant, or send it through HMRC's online service yourself, and then mark it as sent here.
The page covers one business at a time. If you have more than one, the button under the title names the one it's showing: click it, choose another under Business, and the page changes straight away. It replaced the VAT report and the VAT (Making Tax Digital) page, and links to either of them open it.
A business that isn't VAT registered has no returns, and the page says You’re not VAT registered, so there are no VAT returns. If it is registered, switch VAT registered on in Settings > Accounts & tax, as the page says.
Where Your Returns Come From
The returns are listed newest first. Where they come from depends on whether HMRC is connected, and the line under the heading says which:
- HMRC connected: Your returns, as HMRC has them. These are HMRC's own: the returns it's waiting for, and the ones sent in the last year, including any your accountant sent or you filed on HMRC's website. The due dates are HMRC's too. HMRC counts as connected when your plan includes Making Tax Digital, you've connected it in Accounts & tax and your VAT number is a UK one.
- Not connected: Worked out from your records and the months your VAT quarters end. The returns follow Your VAT quarters end in, in Accounts & tax: three months each, or one month each with Every month. You see the return you're in now and up to four before it, going back no further than the first return your records show any VAT in.
- Calendar quarters: Until you choose the months your quarters end in, the returns are calendar quarters, such as January to March, and a note says These are calendar quarters. Choose the months your VAT quarters end in Settings › Accounts & tax. Your VAT registration certificate, or your HMRC online account, shows which months are yours.
- When each is due: Worked out from your settings, a return is due a month and seven days after it ends, so one ending on 31 March is due by 7 May.
- Filed from Xero: If you've said you file your VAT returns from Xero, the line says You file your VAT returns from Xero, so they aren’t sent from here. HMRC says here once each has gone., or without HMRC connected You file your VAT returns from Xero, so they aren’t sent from here. Mark each as sent once it’s gone. The figures are still worked out here, but there's no Send to HMRC, so a return is never sent twice. See Xero Integration.
If HMRC can't answer, a warning says what it said, such as Your HMRC connection has run out. Connect HMRC again in Settings › Accounts & tax., followed by Until HMRC answers, these are worked out from your settings. The returns are worked out from your VAT quarters until HMRC answers again.
Each Return
Each return is a card with its dates, such as 1 January to 31 March 2026, and a badge saying where it stands:
- In progress: The return you're in now, and the day it can be sent from, such as In progress: can be sent from 1 April 2026.
- Due: Ended and still to send, such as Due by 7 May 2026.
- Overdue: With HMRC connected, still to send after its due date, such as Overdue: it was due by 7 May 2026.
- Due date passed: Without HMRC connected, a return whose due date has passed, such as Due date passed: 7 May 2026. Work Planner can't tell whether it went another way, so it doesn't call it overdue.
- Sent to HMRC: Sent from Work Planner, with the day it went, such as Sent to HMRC on 20 April 2026.
- Marked as sent: Sent another way and marked as sent here, with the day you marked it, such as Marked as sent on 2 May 2026.
- Sent another way: With HMRC connected, a return HMRC has that wasn't sent from Work Planner, such as one your accountant sent, with the day HMRC got it: Sent another way on 1 February 2026.
Under the dates, a line says what the return comes to:
- Due: You owe £320.00 by 7 May 2026., or HMRC owes you £45.00. when the VAT you can claim back is more than the VAT on your sales.
- Overdue, or its due date passed: You owe £320.00. It was due by 7 May 2026.
- In progress: What it comes to so far, such as So far, you owe £120.00.
- Sent to HMRC: What was sent, such as You owed £320.00. or HMRC owed you £45.00.
- Nothing either way: Nothing to pay.
A return sent another way has no line, as Work Planner can't know what was sent. The next return to send. marks the earliest return that's ended and still to send. It's the one that puts right changes to returns you've already sent (see below), so with HMRC connected returns go in order: a later one that's ended says Send the earlier return first. With HMRC connected and no returns yet, the page says No VAT returns yet.
What You Can Do With a Return
- See the figures: Opens the return's figures under it, and Hide the figures closes them again.
- Send to HMRC: With HMRC connected, on the next return to send, once it's ended. It opens the Send VAT return popup.
- Download for your accountant: Downloads the return as a spreadsheet, with everything behind it.
- Mark as sent: With HMRC not connected, on a return that's ended and not been sent, once your accountant has sent it or you've sent it through HMRC's online service. A note above the returns reminds you: Sent a return another way, such as through your accountant? Mark it as sent, so it stops showing as still to send.
- Not sent after all: On a return you marked as sent, to undo it.
Each is explained below.
The Figures
See the figures shows the nine boxes of the return, numbered as on HMRC's form, each with what it is in plain words:
- Box 1: VAT on your sales, the VAT you charged for your work.
- Box 2: VAT on goods brought in from EU countries (Northern Ireland only).
- Box 3: Total VAT on your sales, boxes 1 and 2 added together.
- Box 4: VAT you can claim back on your purchases, the VAT in your expenses.
- Box 5: What you pay HMRC, or What HMRC pays you when box 4 is the bigger. It's the difference between boxes 3 and 4.
- Box 6: Your sales, before VAT.
- Box 7: Your purchases, before VAT.
- Boxes 8 and 9: Goods sent to EU countries, before VAT (Northern Ireland only) and Goods brought in from EU countries, before VAT (Northern Ireland only).
Boxes 2, 8 and 9 are for a business in Northern Ireland that buys or sells goods with EU countries. Work Planner doesn't record those, so they're always £0.00. Boxes 6 and 7 are in whole pounds, as HMRC asks for them.
A note above the boxes says what they are:
- Sent from Work Planner: The figures you sent to HMRC. They're what was sent, so changes made since don't move them.
- Sent another way: Worked out from your records: what was sent may differ.
- In progress: So far: these change as you add work and expenses up to 30 June 2026. The date is the day the return ends.
What Counts
The figures come from your completed transactions dated in the return, worked out just as a return sent to HMRC is:
- Sales: What you charged for your work, less what goodwill refunds took off the price, with its VAT. A refund the customer owes again, or one paying back their credit, leaves the price, and its VAT, as it was.
- On Cash accounting: The money you received instead of what you charged, less refunds. Each payment takes the VAT share of the invoice or job it paid for. Your scheme is the VAT accounting scheme in Accounts & tax.
- Purchases: Your expenses, with the VAT in each.
- Left out: Tips, debts you write off, adjustments and missed visits. A payment still pending waits until it's completed.
- Opening balances: Left out too. They bring over what customers owed, or had in credit, before you used Work Planner, so they're left out of the VAT returns and Income Tax updates sent to HMRC as well.
Putting Right Returns You’ve Sent
You can still add, change or delete a transaction dated in a return you've sent. HMRC lets you put right an earlier return on your next one, so the next return to send takes in the difference, and its boxes include it. Its figures list each change under Putting right returns you’ve sent, with the transaction, its date, what happened, such as Changed after the return was sent, and the VAT it adds or takes off. This is for returns sent to HMRC from Work Planner: a return you marked as sent is your word that it went, so changes to it aren't put right here (see below).
HMRC’s Receipt
A return sent from Work Planner shows HMRC's receipt with its figures: the HMRC receipt number, the day it was Received by HMRC and, when HMRC gave one, the Payment reference. Keep them in case HMRC asks about the return.
What’s Behind These Figures
What’s behind these figures, under the boxes, lists every sale and purchase in the return in date order, and Hide what’s behind these figures closes it again:
- Sales: The Date, Customer, Description, Before VAT and VAT of each. Refunds are minus amounts, as they come off. On Cash accounting, the sales are the payments you received.
- Purchases: The same for each expense, with its Category in place of the customer, or Uncategorised.
- Long lists: Each list shows its first fifty, and Show all with the number, such as Show all 120, shows the rest.
- Totals: At the bottom of each list. Boxes 6 and 7 are rounded to whole pounds, so they can be a little off these totals, and the next return's boxes also include the changes that put right returns you've sent, which aren't listed here.
Sending a Return to HMRC
Send to HMRC shows on the next return to send, once it's ended and HMRC is connected. Returns go in order, as each takes in the changes to the ones before. It opens the Send VAT return popup, with the return's dates and when it's due at the top:
- What you'll owe: You’ll owe HMRC £320.00., or HMRC will owe you £45.00.
- The boxes: All nine, as above, with Putting right returns you’ve sent underneath when the return takes any changes in.
- The declaration: HMRC's own words, which you switch on to agree to: When you submit this VAT information you are making a legal declaration that the information is true and complete. A false declaration can result in prosecution.
- Send to HMRC: Sends the return, once the declaration is on. Cancel closes the popup without sending anything.
Once HMRC takes it, VAT return sent to HMRC. shows and the return reads Sent to HMRC on with the day. The transactions in it show they've been sent to HMRC. You can still change them: the next return puts right the difference.
Only the figures you checked are sent. If something changes them while the popup is open, such as someone changing a transaction in the return, nothing is sent. The popup says Your figures have changed since you reviewed them, so nothing was sent. Check the new figures, then send them., shows the new figures, and you switch the declaration on again to send them. If HMRC turns the return down, it says why.
Downloading a Return for Your Accountant
Download for your accountant saves the return as a spreadsheet (a CSV file, which opens in Excel), named by its dates, such as vat-return-2026-01-01-to-2026-03-31.csv. Your accountant can send the return from it. It has:
- The return: Its dates, the business, its VAT number and when it's due.
- The boxes: All nine, with what each one is in plain words, then You owe HMRC or HMRC owes you and the amount.
- Corrections: On the next return to send, the changes it takes in under Putting right returns already sent, with what each adds or takes off.
- Sales and purchases: Every one in the return, as under What’s behind these figures, with their totals.
You can download any return, including the one in progress and those already sent. The download on For your accountant lists the returns sent for its period, with everything else your accountant needs.
Marking a Return as Sent
Without HMRC connected, Work Planner can't tell when a return has gone, so it stays due until you say. Once your accountant has sent it, or you've sent it through HMRC's online service, press Mark as sent on it. The button shows on a return that's ended and not been sent.
- It shows as sent: The badge reads Marked as sent on with the day, and the return no longer shows as still to send.
- Later changes aren't put right: Marking a return as sent is your word that it went, so Work Planner doesn't carry changes to its transactions into later returns, as it does for one sent from Work Planner. The return says Changes to its entries since aren’t carried into later returns: tell whoever sent it.
- Corrections go with it: If it was the next return to send, the changes to returns sent from Work Planner that it listed count as sent with it, so check that what you sent included them. The download lists them.
Not sent after all undoes a mark made by mistake. The return is still to send again, and the corrections it took in go back to the next return.
With HMRC connected, HMRC says which returns have gone, so there's no Mark as sent, and a return you marked before connecting shows as HMRC has it. While HMRC isn't answering, the line under the heading says the returns are worked out until HMRC answers, and marking waits until it does.
Flat Rate Scheme
Work Planner can't work out or send Flat Rate Scheme returns, as they're a percentage of your turnover. If that's your VAT accounting scheme, the page says You’re on the Flat Rate Scheme, which Work Planner can’t work out or send returns for. Your returns are listed so you can see when they’re due: send them through your accountant or HMRC’s online service. Each return shows its dates and when it's due, without figures, a download or Send to HMRC. Without HMRC connected, you can still mark each one as sent.
On Accounts Home
The next VAT return to send also shows under Things to do on Accounts > Home, with HMRC connected or not: VAT return due 7 May 2026, with its dates and what it comes to so far, or with HMRC connected VAT return overdue: it was due by 7 May 2026. It opens this page on the business Accounts > Home is showing. Without HMRC, a return whose due date has passed stays on this page rather than Accounts > Home, as it may well have gone another way, so Accounts > Home shows the return coming up.
Reminders
Everyone whose role can send your VAT returns, with Submit under HMRC, is reminded of each one in the notifications bell, on their phone and by email, at 8am:
- A fortnight before it's due: VAT return due in 14 days.
- Three days before: VAT return due in 3 days.
- Once it's overdue: VAT return overdue. This is only said for 30 days after the due date, so a return long gone isn't brought up.
Each says which return it is and when it's due, such as For 1 July to 30 September 2026, due by 7 November 2026., and opens this page on the business it's for. Each is sent once, and a later one takes the place of the earlier one in the bell. If a return only turns up after a reminder's day, that reminder still comes, with the days left, such as VAT return due in 10 days or VAT return due tomorrow.
- Without HMRC connected: The reminders follow the returns worked out from your VAT quarters, once you've chosen the months they end in: Your VAT quarters end in, in Settings > Accounts & tax. Until then there are none, as calendar quarters may not be yours. Work Planner can't tell when a return has gone another way, so once the due date has passed it only follows up a return it reminded you about, with VAT return due date passed rather than overdue, and adds If it’s gone, mark it as sent on the VAT page. Until someone has opened this page or Accounts > Home since connecting HMRC, or once the connection has stopped working, the reminders follow your VAT quarters in the same way.
- With HMRC connected: The reminders follow the returns HMRC last said it was waiting for. They don't ask HMRC themselves: Work Planner notes what HMRC says each time someone in the business opens this page or Accounts > Home. So a new return from HMRC, or one sent another way, is only picked up once someone has opened one of them since.
- Once it's gone: Sending a return from Work Planner, or marking it as sent, takes its reminder out of the bell straight away. With HMRC connected, one sent another way, such as by your accountant, goes as soon as Work Planner sees HMRC no longer lists it. Marking a return as not sent after all brings its reminders back.
- An Irish VAT number: No reminders, as Revenue sets the due dates.
To stop them, turn off Tax reminders in your notification settings. The notifications bell lists them under Tax.
VAT Registered in Ireland
With an Irish VAT number, starting IE, your returns go to Revenue rather than HMRC. The page lists them two months at a time, worked out from your records, and the line under the heading says Two-month VAT periods, as Revenue usually sets them, worked out from your records. If Revenue gave you longer periods, ask your accountant how to add them up.
- Each return: One that's ended reads Ended: ready to send, as Revenue sets its own due dates, with what it comes to, such as You owe €230.00. or Revenue owes you €45.00.
- The figures: Revenue's codes: T1 VAT on your sales, T2 VAT you can claim back on your purchases, and T3 What you pay Revenue or T4 What Revenue pays you, with your sales and purchases before VAT.
- Sending it: Download it for your accountant, or send it through Revenue's Online Service, then mark it as sent. Irish returns don't show on Accounts > Home.
Who Can Use It
Anyone whose role can see reports can see the VAT page. Sending a return, Mark as sent and Not sent after all need the Submit permission under HMRC, which owners and admins have. Anyone else sees the returns without those buttons, and with HMRC connected the line under the heading adds Ask someone who can send VAT returns to send them. Downloading needs Export Reports and Lists under Reports on the role. Where the page mentions Settings › Accounts & tax, it's a link if your role can change the business's settings, and plain text if not. See Editing a Role.
Related articles
- Accounts and Tax Settings: Switching VAT registered on, your VAT number and scheme, the months your VAT quarters end in, and connecting HMRC.
- Connecting HMRC: Signing in to HMRC so Work Planner can send them, and connecting again every 18 months.
- Accounts Home: Where the next VAT return shows under Things to do.
- Transactions List: Every transaction behind the figures.
- Editing a Transaction: Changing a transaction in a return you've sent.
- Adding an Expense: The VAT in each cost, which you can claim back.
- Profit and Loss Report: Your income, expenses and profit, before VAT.
- Notification Settings: Switching tax reminders off, or on again.
- For Your Accountant: The returns sent for a period, with everything else your accountant needs, in one download.