Your VAT pre-submissions are due either monthly or quarterly, depending on what your Finanzamt decided based on your revenue. They need to be submitted and paid by the 10th following the concerning month /quarter.
You can easily submit your VAT pre-submission in just a few steps.
Check out our video tutorial or read the step-by-step guide below.
1. Add your revenue and expenses
Make sure you added all your relevant revenue
and expenses for your VAT period in Accountable.
2. Go to the taxes screen
On the taxes screen, you need to select the VAT pre-submission that you want to submit and click on Review and Submit.
After, you land on a page to check your VAT pre-submission and make sure that you added all of your relevant revenue and expenses.
In this screen, all categories for a VAT pre-submission are displayed, and you can click on each point to see the relevant invoices/expenses.
We show you in the Tax review by our Accountable AI if invoices or receipts are not taken into account, e.g. because a document is missing. It also alerts you to other potential errors that you need to check and confirm, otherwise our guarantee will not apply.
Starting 2023, all our Taxes + MAX subscribers (former GROW/PRO + MAX) can benefit from our tax guarantee for their tax submissions.
3. Submit to the Finanzamt
Once you have checked everything, you just need to click on Submit to the Finanzamt.
And....congratulations! You successfully submitted your VAT pre-submission.
You will receive the ELSTER-receipt via email to prove your successful submission. If you delete this email by accident, you can always download a new receipt when you click on the VAT pre-submission on Web.
4. Pay or get a reimbursement and encode your VAT
Payment | Reimbursement |
Use the payment information that you receive when clicking on VAT payment, or simply scan the provided QR code. |
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Afterwards, you can mark the VAT payment as paid. | Click on mark as recovered |
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A pop-up window will ask you if we should automatically create an expense for you. | And a pop-up asking you if we should automatically create a revenue for you will appear. |
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The expense will open and you can simply save it. | When you click on yes, a revenue will automatically open, and you only have to save it. |
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Done.
It is important to create an expense or revenue, as this influences your EÜR. Reimbursements are revenue and payments are expenses.
You have submitted and paid your VAT pre-submission. The Finanzamt will be happy with you. :)
📆 Good to know: The 10-day rule at the turn of the year
Normally, an expense counts in the year the money leaves your account. For regular payments like your VAT prepayment, there’s an exception: if your VAT prepayment for December or Q4 is debited from your account by January 10th at the latest, it still counts for the previous year.
What to keep in mind:
What matters is the debit, not the day you send the transfer. If your bank only debits it on January 11th, the payment counts in the new year. This also applies if January 10th falls on a weekend.
⚠️ January 10th 2027 is a Sunday, so it’s best to pay by Friday, January 8th.Exception: SEPA direct debit. If you’ve given the tax office a direct debit mandate, the payment counts for the previous year even if it’s debited on 11 or 12 January.
The rule doesn’t apply with a Dauerfristverlängerung (permanent extension), since your advance payment is then only due in February.
👉 How to record the payment in Accountable:
Pay your VAT and click “mark as paid” (see step 4).
Click “Yes” in the pop-up so an expense is created automatically.
Change the expense date to December 31st of the previous year (e.g., 31.12.2026 for the Q4 2026 advance payment).
Make sure the expense is assigned to Q4 or December of the previous year.
Save the expense. It will now be included in your EÜR for the previous year.
If the rule doesn’t apply, simply keep the actual payment date, but still select Q4 or December of the previous year for your VAT return.
💡 Read more in our blog article: The 10-day rule for freelancers in Germany