VAT Deduction Tracker

The advance VAT return is really a simple subtraction: output VAT you collected minus input VAT you paid yourself. What remains is your liability - or, if input VAT outweighs it, your refund. In practice you quickly lose the overview, because receipts pile up over weeks and the filing deadline always arrives faster than expected.

The VAT deduction tracker gives you the overview back. You record your income and expenses with net amount, rate and tax amount; the tool automatically assigns them to the right side and totals input and output VAT separately. On the overview you always see your current liability without doing the maths yourself.

Because you file monthly or quarterly, the tracker thinks in periods. The period view breaks your liability down per month or quarter, so for each filing period you have exactly the figure that belongs in the ELSTER form. The result can be exported so you do not have to retype it.

A VAT deduction stands or falls with the invoice. If a mandatory detail under Section 14 is missing - tax number, sequential invoice number, correct tax statement, description of the service - the tax office can strike the deduction. The built-in invoice checklist goes through the mandatory details, with a separate look at small-value invoices that need fewer entries.

Deadlines are the second stumbling block. Section 18 sets the 10th of the following month; the permanent extension pushes that back by a month but costs monthly filers a special advance payment. The tracker keeps the relevant dates and rules ready so you avoid a late-filing surcharge.

Special cases are accounted for: reverse-charge transactions where the tax liability shifts to you, different rates and the split between the standard and reduced rate. A dedicated legal section briefly summarizes the cited sections - 14, 15 and 18 of the VAT Act - so you can follow why the calculation works the way it does.

Everything stays in your browser. Your turnover, your receipts, your liability - nothing is sent to a server, nothing stored without your action. This is a recording and calculation aid, not tax advice and not filing software; the actual return still goes through ELSTER, but with the finished figures in hand.