Hello there, Paul. There are a few reasons why your VAT Due seems higher than the amount on your VAT 100 report. The most common cause is timing. If you enter a transaction today but backdate it to a previous period, the VAT 100 report typically excludes it since the date falls outside your current view. However, your VAT Due updates immediately because the software recognizes that tax is owed as soon as the entry is recorded.
You can verify this by checking Boxes 1 and 2 on the Prepare VAT return page. If you see entries dated before the current period, these are late claims. The system is pulling them into your current liability to catch up, which creates that gap between your balance and the report. You should also check for any journals in those boxes, as these are often corrections for past errors that bypass the standard VAT 100 report, causing your totals to drift apart.
Another cause is unrecorded payments. If you filed a previous return but didn’t record the actual payment in QuickBooks, you'll notice that VAT 100 will reset to zero for the new period, while VAT Due balance continues to show the old debt.
Discrepancies also occur if transactions are posted directly to the VAT Control Account. These manual entries bypass the VAT 100 report entirely, causing your balances to drift apart.
Let us know if you have additional questions. We're here to help you understand.
