The quarterly return of VAT settlements and the December advance

A hardware shop in Treviso settles VAT quarterly. On 20 August it pays 3,200 € of VAT for the second quarter and files the matter away. At the end of October its accountant asks where the return for that same quarter went. The money reached the Treasury; the figures explaining it did not. Paying and reporting are two duties on two calendars, and the second one was due on 30 September.

Paying is not enough: what gets reported

The course on settling Italian VAT showed how a monthly or quarterly balance is worked out and paid by F24. This module starts from that balance. The question is no longer how much to pay, but what the business must tell the Revenue Agency about each settlement.

The duty comes from article 21-bis of decree-law 78 of 2010. The Agency's guidance sums it up this way: VAT taxable persons file the Comunicazione delle liquidazioni periodiche Iva to report the summary accounting data of their periodic settlements of the tax.

The return replaces nothing: it is neither a payment nor the annual VAT return, but an interim summary giving the Agency, quarter by quarter, the numbers behind each payment. A business can pay on time and still be in default, like the hardware shop.

A monthly filer also sends the return every three months. The technical specifications ask, in each file, for the data of the settlements carried out in the reference quarter. For a monthly business that means three settlements side by side in the same file, one for each month.

Who is exempt, and when no form is needed

Exemption follows a single rule. Taxable persons that are not required to file the annual VAT return, or to carry out periodic settlements, are exempt, provided the conditions for exemption still hold throughout the year. Someone who does not settle VAT has nothing to summarise.

Among small operators the usual case is the flat-rate scheme, the regime forfetario. The Agency lists those who used it for the whole tax year among taxpayers exempt from the annual VAT return. Combine the two rules and such a taxpayer files no quarterly return either.

The closing condition matters. A business that leaves the flat-rate scheme during the year begins settling VAT and falls under the duty for the following quarters. Exemption is not settled once and for all in January; it is checked every quarter against what actually happened.

There is also a practical exemption. The Agency states that there is no duty to file when there is no data to report. A quarter without any sale or purchase needs no file at all, because there is no settlement to summarise.

The exception to that is subtle and expensive to overlook. The duty applies whenever a credit carried over from the previous quarter has to be shown. An empty quarter that inherits a credit must still be reported, because the credit needs to appear there in order to be used later on.

Where the figures go: the VP section

The form is filled in by lines of the VP section. The Agency's answers to frequent questions name five lines that are enough for a small business: VP2 for the taxable amount of sales, VP3 for that of purchases, VP4 for VAT chargeable, VP5 for VAT deducted and VP8 for the credit of the previous period.

• VP2: taxable amount of the sales of the period
• VP3: taxable amount of purchases
• VP4: VAT chargeable, meaning the VAT on sales that became due in the period
• VP5: VAT deducted, meaning the VAT on purchases whose deduction is exercised in the period
• VP8: credit from the previous period, in its full amount

On line VP8 the Agency is explicit. It carries the whole credit of the previous period, not only the part actually used as a deduction. The only thing taken off is any portion claimed as a refund or set against other taxes through the Iva TR form, since that portion has already gone another way.

Reverse-charge purchases are the first trap. A buyer who owes the tax, for instance on an intra-EU acquisition, does not include that taxable amount among the sales on line VP2. It goes among purchases on line VP3, and the tax is entered both on VP4 and on VP5, on the latter only where it is deductible.

The reasoning is symmetrical on the seller's side. A supplier issuing an invoice without VAT, because the customer is the one who owes it, still includes that taxable amount on line VP2. The sale exists in the supplier's turnover even though someone else will account for the tax.

The second trap concerns invoices whose VAT becomes chargeable later. The taxable amount goes on VP2 for the month or quarter in which the transaction takes place. The tax itself goes on VP4 for the period in which it becomes chargeable. Taxable amount and tax from one invoice can therefore land in two different returns.

The second module meets this rule again with cash accounting for VAT, where a gap between invoice and payment is the normal case rather than the exception. It is worth fixing now: line VP2 follows the transaction, line VP4 follows the moment the tax becomes chargeable.

Four returns next to the payments

The general rule is short. The return goes online only, sent by the taxpayer in person or by an authorised intermediary, and is due on the final day of the second month following each quarter. The first quarter is therefore reported by 31 May and the third by 30 November.

The second quarter is the exception. Under the general rule it would fall at the end of August; the guidance sets 30 September instead. That is the date the hardware shop missed, convinced that its payment on 20 August had closed the quarter.

The fourth quarter offers two routes. It can be filed on its own, by the end of February of the following year. Alternatively, its data can go into the annual VAT return, which in that case must be filed within February instead of within the ordinary window.

One last rule moves the dates. When a deadline falls on a Saturday or a public holiday, it shifts to the next working day. In 2026, 28 February was a Saturday, and the Agency gave 2 March as the actual deadline for those reporting the fourth quarter through the annual return.

The table shows why the two duties get confused. For the first three quarters, payment falls two months after the quarter, on the 16th; the return falls in that same month, but on its last day. Same month, two days, two obligations.

Preparing, signing and sending the file

The return is an xml file that must follow the technical specifications approved by the measure of 21 March 2018. It contains the identification data of the taxpayer, the settlement data for the quarter and those of any declarant acting on the taxpayer's behalf. It can be produced with the Agency's free software or with commercial software that complies.

The file must carry a digital signature, and the Agency accepts three alternatives: a qualified signature certificate, the signature based on Agency certificates available in Desktop Telematico and Entratel Multifile, or the seal function of the Fatture e Corrispettivi web interface.

Several returns can be gathered into one zip archive, signing either each file or only the archive. Before sending, the checking software confirms that a file is formally correct; it also runs inside Fatture e Corrispettivi.

Three channels remain for the transmission itself: the dedicated function in the Fatture e Corrispettivi web interface, a channel already accredited with the Exchange System for e-invoicing, or a channel accredited specifically for VAT returns and invoice data.

The December advance: who owes it

27 December is the last day to pay the VAT advance on the closing settlements of the last month or last quarter of the year. The settlement course gave the principle; this section deals with who really owes the advance and how to choose the method that fits.

In principle every VAT taxpayer owes it, except those who are not required to carry out periodic settlements, whether monthly or quarterly. A flat-rate taxpayer for the whole year is therefore outside it, for the same reason that keeps them outside the quarterly return.

A second group is exempt because the basis of the calculation is missing. These are taxpayers who have neither the historical figure nor the forecast figure. The Agency gives three examples, and each of them can be spotted by looking at the records of the previous year and of the current one.

• Those who started trading during the year, or stopped by 30 November as monthly filers or by 30 September as quarterly filers
• Those who closed the previous tax year in credit, even if they asked for a refund
• Those who paid for December or the last quarter of the previous year but expect to close the current year with deductible VAT in excess

Then there is an amount threshold. Taxpayers whose advance does not exceed 103.29 euro are not required to pay. The wording is not exceeding: an advance exactly equal to the threshold is not paid, while one that exceeds it by a single cent is paid in full.

Finally, the list of exemptions names some categories: those who made only non-taxable, exempt or out-of-scope supplies, certain farmers, entertainment and gaming activities under a special scheme, and a sole trader who leased out their only business by 30 September or 30 November.

Three methods, one choice of convenience

The Agency lets the taxpayer pick among three methods according to convenience. There is no default method and no fallback: they are three lawful ways of estimating the same payment, and the business may work out all three and pay the lowest one.

The historical method looks back. It starts from what the business paid, or ought to have paid, for the matching month or quarter of the year before. For a monthly filer that is the debt of the December settlement; for an ordinary quarterly filer, the debt shown in the annual return; for a special quarterly filer, the fourth-quarter settlement.

One detail upsets many hand calculations. The historical base is taken before deducting the advance owed for the previous year. If last December's net payment was small because the advance had been subtracted from it, that net figure is not the base: the advance must be added back.

The forecast method looks ahead. You estimate the VAT payable for December, in the annual return or for the fourth quarter, depending on the kind of taxpayer, and pay 88 % of it. To keep it comparable with the historical figure, the estimate is taken net of any deductible surplus carried over from the previous period.

The forecast suits a business whose activity is shrinking, but it rests on an estimate the business must be able to justify. Keep the spreadsheet of invoices issued and expected next to the F24 receipt.

The analytical method does not estimate; it settles. A dedicated settlement takes the VAT on sales invoices recorded from 1 to 20 December for monthly filers, or from 1 October to 20 December for quarterly filers. It adds transactions carried out from 1 November to 20 December but not yet recorded or invoiced.

On the purchase side, the same settlement subtracts the VAT on invoices entered in the purchase register over the same windows: from 1 December for monthly filers, from 1 October for quarterly ones, always up to 20 December. The advance is 100 % of the result.

The analytical method means work in the busiest week of the year, with registers up to date on 20 December. It pays off when the year ends weakly or with heavy purchases. The historical method needs no work but mirrors a year that may differ from this one.

Paying the advance, then deducting it

The advance is paid with the F24 form, online only. There are two tax codes: 6013 for monthly filers and 6035 for quarterly filers. The amount due may be offset in the same F24 against credits for other taxes or contributions that the business has available.

An ordinary quarterly filer does not add to the advance the 1 % surcharge that applies to its quarterly settlements. The guidance says so in so many words, in contrast with the rule for periodic payments. Reusing the quarterly spreadsheet out of habit risks paying interest that is not owed.

The advance is not an extra tax: it is a prepayment to be recovered. A monthly filer subtracts it from the VAT due for December; an ordinary quarterly filer subtracts it in the annual return; a special quarterly filer subtracts it from the fourth-quarter amount. Forgetting to do so means paying the same tax twice.

The acconto-iva calculator compares the three methods on the amounts you enter, applies the 103.29 euro threshold and shows the tax code. It does not decide whether the business falls under a personal exemption: that check stays with the registers and the Agency's list.