Oops: you just filed your VAT pre-submission and realized an invoice or expense is missing?
Don't panic, you can submit a corrected VAT pre-submission. Whether a correction is necessary depends on whether the mistake affects the amount of VAT you pay to the tax office.
When is a correction required?
If the mistake means you have paid too little VAT, you are legally required to correct your VAT pre-submission (§ 153 AO). This applies if:
you forgot an invoice or recorded income incorrectly
an expense was recorded in a way that you paid too little VAT, for example, because too much input VAT was claimed
Adding expenses with input VAT later?
If you want to add expenses afterwards and claim the input VAT, you can do this in your annual VAT return. Just add the expense, and it will be corrected with your the submission of the annual VAT return.
Whether it makes sense in your case to correct the VAT pre-submission instead can only be assessed by a tax advisor.
When is no correction needed?
In these cases, you can simply reopen the period and update the booking:
The mistake doesn't affect the VAT amount, for example, a wrong category on an expense without input VAT
VAT payments to or from the tax office, as these are not part of the VAT pre-submission
Expenses without input VAT, without an intra-community acquisition, and without a service from abroad, as these don't appear in the VAT pre-submission
Already submitted your annual VAT return?
Once the annual VAT return for the year has been submitted, it replaces your VAT pre-submissions at the tax office.
In this case, please correct the annual VAT return instead of the VAT pre-submission.
Please submit your correction carefully
A corrected VAT pre-submission that increases the amount you owe can be considered a voluntary disclosure (Selbstanzeige - if too less taxes were paid).
That's a good thing: you're correcting the mistake yourself before the tax office finds it. But it also means your correction should be complete and accurate, so please check all bookings in the affected period before you submit. Large differences may also lead to a tax audit.
If you're unsure, please reach out to your Tax Coaches.
We'll explain how the correction works in Accountable.
For an assessment of your individual case, we can connect you with one of our partner tax advisors.
How to correct your VAT pre-submission in Accountable
1. Mark the VAT pre-submission as "not submitted" and "not paid" to unlock the VAT period
On the Taxes screen, click at "show all xxxx" - all submitted and paid submissions will be visible again. Then click the 3-dot menu next to the VAT pre-submission and select "Mark as not submitted" and "Mark as not paid", as shown below ⬇️
This only changes the status in Accountable. Nothing is withdrawn or changed at the tax office.
If you also submitted an EC Sales List (ZM, Zusammenfassende Meldung) for this period and your change affects it, please mark the ZM as "not submitted" as well:
2. Add or edit your income and expenses and assign them to the VAT period
On the Revenue or Expenses screen, add or edit your documents. In the "Additional information" section, assign each document to the VAT period you want to correct.
3. Submit the VAT pre-submission again
Accountable has now recalculated your VAT pre-submission, including the documents you just added or changed.
On the Taxes screen, submit it again.
This sends a corrected VAT pre-submission to the tax office.
If you unlocked the ZM, submit it again too.
4. Mark the VAT pre-submission as paid and record the difference
Mark the VAT pre-submission as paid again. You'll be asked whether to create a payment expense:
You owe more: select Yes and change the amount to the difference you're paying now (new VAT amount minus the amount you originally submitted). Your original payment is already recorded. Then transfer the difference to the tax office.
You don't owe anything more or you'll get a refund: select No. The tax office will refund the difference. Once you receive it, record the refund as income for the corrected period.