How do I record a VAT refund?

Hi Rob,

You can record it via make deposit option using Accounts Payable and account it to your VAT agency.

QuickBooks Support

When you say "VAT agency" what exactly do you mean?

We have VAT refund in the last quarter, and it is currently sitting on the bank account as a deposit to the VAT control account

TIA

Andy

Hello there, @nunhead_man.

You'll set up the VAT agencies as vendor in your QuickBooks. When recording VAT returns, you have to tag or account it to the corresponding agency (vendor).

For future help with VAT concern, you can refer to this link: QuickBooks Desktop VAT e-filing & Making Tax Digital.

Let me know if you have other questions with VAT by commenting below. I'm still here to help you more.

I do have VAT set up, of course - we have had VAT registration through a number of versions of QuickBooks.

My particular problem is how to book a VAT refund which appears to have been posted as a deposit in the bank and reconciled without appearing to hit the VAT control account

Err you said "Let me know if you have other questions with VAT by commenting below. I'm still here to help you more"
As that was a question in my previous post , I am not sure you are?

Hi nunhead_man

In the taxes section you will be able select the record refund option next to the filed period > enter the details, the bank it was received into, the date you received it and confirm the amount you received, you will then be able to match this up to the deposit you received into your bank/the for review page.

When you state that you have already reconciled the deposit are you referring to adding it in from the for review page or actually reconciling the transaction using the reconciliation tool?

Hi there

Thank you

What I did was enter it into the bank account directly marking it as posting to the VAT control account

I cannot see where in QuickBooks I make the entry that you are referring to.

I have had a poke around in the manage VAT screen, but there is nothing like you describe

TIA

Andy

Hi Andy

When you select taxes are there any filed VAT periods, including the one you have received the refund for?

Please note I am in the UK and using desktop version pro 2016

So there is no "taxes" section - there is a VAT section which I presume is the same thing as "taxes" that you are seeing in the United States of America?

In that section in the manage VAT section it does mention the last VAT quarter. However, the refund refers to the one before that which is not shown in the manage VAT screen

Hi nunhead-man

We do apologise we assumed you were using the online product.

In this instance you would receive the deposit in to an income account, you could call this VAT refund, you would not lodge this against the VAT control account as the VAT has not been accounted for in QuickBooks.

Hello - I would not "receive" a payment into any account as I make the postings manually, not automatically downloading from a bank account.

There is no VAT refund account in this version of QuickBooks

So this version of QuickBooks screws up UK VAT then?

Hi nunhead_man

We apologise for the terminology, you would create a deposit allocating it to an income account.

Thank you for your apology

So if I create an income account how would I link it to the VAT report / VAT control account?

Hi nunhead_man

This method wouldn't link your VAT reports or control account as it was dealt with outside any periods filed in QuickBooks. .

Good morning

Let me try again for the last time and before I think about buying a properly grown-up accounting package that is suitable for the UK.

I do my VAT return.

QuickBooks does the automatic posting of that return to her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and updates the data file accordingly so that the transactions reported do not appear as an outstanding issue in the next quarter's return.

That VAT return ends up resulting in a refund to us rather than a payment from us, as in a particular quarter our VAT on purchases exceed our VAT on our customer invoices.

How do I post that income or how is it supposed to be accounted for in the version of QuickBooks that I own?

Hi nunhead_man

If you have used the VAT centre and filed the period within QuickBooks, as you previously suggested that you had not, you would record the refund for this period as follows:

Customer tab > Receive payment and tick the HMRC receivable line and save.

Okay – thank you

Got there last.

I followed that through and then deleted the other payment I had made in order to square away the VAT control account and the bank account to its reconciled balance

Thanks for getting back to us nunhead_man, I'm pleased that's sorted for you now :)