Tax return (VAT declaration)¶

Companies with a registered VAT number must submit a tax return on a monthly or quarterly basis, depending on their turnover and the registration regulation. A tax return - or VAT return - gives the tax authorities information about the taxable transactions made by the company. The output tax is charged on the number of goods and services sold by a business, while the input tax is the tax added to the price when goods or services are purchased. Based on these values, the company can calculate the tax amount they have to pay or be refunded.

Note

You can find additional information about VAT and its mechanism on this page from the European Commission: “What is VAT?”.

Prerequisites¶

Tax Return Periodicity¶

The configuration of the Tax Return Periodicity allows Odoo to compute your tax return correctly and also to send you a reminder to never miss a tax return deadline.

To do so, go to Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Settings. Under the Tax Return Periodicity, you can set:

Periodicity: define here whether you submit your tax return on a monthly or quarterly basis;
Reminder: define when Odoo should remind you to submit your tax return;
Journal: select the journal in which to record the tax return.

Configure how often tax returns have to be made in Odoo Accounting

Note

This is usually configured during the app’s initial set up.

Tax Grids¶

Odoo generates tax reports based on the Tax Grids settings that are configured on your taxes. Therefore, it is crucial to make sure that all recorded transactions use the right taxes. You can see the Tax Grids by opening the Journal Items tab of any invoice and bill.

To configure your tax grids, go to Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Taxes, and open the tax you want to modify. There, you can edit your tax settings, along with the tax grids that are used to record invoices or credit notes.

Configure taxes and their tax grids in Odoo Accounting

Note

Taxes and reports are usually already pre-configured in Odoo: a fiscal localization package is installed according to the country you select at the creation of your database.

Close a tax period¶

Tax Lock Date¶

Any new transaction whose accounting date prior to the Tax Lock Date has its tax values moved to the next open tax period. This is useful to make sure that no change can be made to a report once its period is closed.

Therefore, we recommend locking your tax date before working on your Closing Journal Entry. This way, other users cannot modify or add transactions that would have an impact on the Closing Journal Entry, which can help you avoid some tax declaration errors.

To check the current Tax Lock Date, or to edit it, go to Accounting ‣ Accounting ‣ Actions: Lock Dates.

Lock your tax for a specific period in Odoo Accounting

Tax Report¶

Once all the transactions involving taxes have been posted for the period you want to report, open your Tax Report by going to Accounting ‣ Reporting ‣ Audit Reports: Tax Report. Make sure to select the right period you want to declare by using the date filter, this way you can have an overview of your tax report. From this view, you can easily access different formats of your tax report, such as PDF and XLSX. These include all the values to report to the tax authorities, along with the amount you have to pay or be refunded.

Note

If you forgot to lock your tax date before clicking on Closing Journal Entry, then Odoo automatically locks your fiscal period on the same date as the accounting date of your entry. This safety mechanism can prevent some fiscal errors, but it is advised to lock your tax date manually before, as described above.