bexio has a feature that allows you to change your chosen VAT method retrospectively. You can decide either effective taxation or balance control taxation. Below is a list of the conditions that must be fulfilled for each method before you can perform the change. If these conditions are not met, you will have to adjust the bookings / documents in order to enable the option to change the method.
Content
Changing from effective taxation to net taxation
The following conditions must be met before you can perform the change:
- The fiscal year that you would like to change is
- not before 2018
- not closed
- In the fiscal year that you would like to change, there are
- no closed VAT periods
- no bookings with the old VAT rates (those valid before 2018, e.g. 8% VAT)
- no bookings pertaining to documents from other years (e.g. invoicing in 2017 and receipt of payment in 2018)
- no bookings with opted tax rates
- no bookings to which tax rates with no codes have been applied
- no manual bookings with tax rates that are not supported in the balance control method (e.g. bookings with input tax rates, bookings with customs taxes, etc.)
Changing from net tax method to effective taxation
The following conditions must be met before you can perform the change:
- The fiscal year that you would like to change is
- not before 2018
- not closed
- In the fiscal year that you would like to change, there are
- no closed VAT periods
- no bookings with the old VAT rates (those valid before 2018, e.g. balance control tax rates such as 6.1%)
- no bookings pertaining to documents from other years (e.g. invoicing in 2017 and receipt of payment in 2018)
- no bookings with opted balance control tax rates
- no bookings to which tax rates with no codes have been applied
All right, how can I make the switch now?
As soon as an entry (whether with or without VAT) exists in the journal for the financial year in question, the VAT settings can no longer be adjusted. To be able to make a change, all postings must therefore be removed from the journal if they already exist.
There are few bookings available
If there are only a few bookings, a changeover is definitely recommended so that you can manage VAT correctly in bexio. To do this, you can proceed as follows to remove the postings:
- Purchase & sales documents
Invoices, credit notes and supplier invoices from the financial year in question must be in draft status so that they do not generate any postings. Cross-year incoming and outgoing payments must also be temporarily deleted.
- Expenses & manual postings
Instead of deleting existing expenses and manual postings, you can also temporarily change them to a previous or subsequent year so that the resulting postings are removed from the financial year. For example, you change the date of an expense from 21.02.2021 to 21.02.2022.
- Bank entries
Transactions that are reconciled via banking must be reversed. The best way to do this is under "Banking" → "Show bank transactions". After changing the setting, these must be reconciled individually again manually.
- Payroll entries
If postings have already been transferred to financial accounting, they can be canceled in the payroll module. Under "Payroll" → "Financial accounting", click "Cancel" in the relevant months. After the changeover, these transfers can simply be carried out again.
- Provisional balances carried forward
If provisional balance carry forwards have already been posted, you can delete the carry forward again under "Accounting" → "Year-end closing".
- Opening bookings
If the previous financial year has already been closed, there are already definitive balances carried forward in the journal. In this case, the financial year must be opened. In this article, you will learn how to reopen years that have already been closed.
- Journal check
Now check under "Accounting" → "Reports" → "Journal" whether there are no postings in the relevant financial year without exception. Is it empty? Then you can make the change under the following path: "Settings" → "All settings" → "Accounting" → "Basic VAT settings".
There are already several 100 bookings
If there are already many postings in the relevant year, the effort involved is relatively high and we advise against resetting all postings so that the VAT setting can be changed. In this case, we recommend that you calculate the VAT for the year in question manually. For this procedure, we advise you to ask your trusted trustee/accountant for support, as this requires sufficient accounting knowledge. You can find the instructions with more detailed information on the procedure for manually calculating VAT here.
Setting for the next tax period
Make the VAT setting for the next financial year now. You can change the setting before you make any bookings for the next year so that you can certainly manage VAT correctly in bexio next year. You can make the change under the following path: "Settings" → "All settings" → "Accounting" → "Basic VAT settings". Likewise, you can then select or add the relevant period.
Good to know: For example, if you switch from the net tax method to the effective method, you will have different VAT accounting methods. During the changeover in this example, bexio needs to know which of your net tax rates match your effective tax rates. You can configure exactly this in the tax rate assignment. You can find more information on this in this article: "When do I have to make a tax rate allocation and how does it work?"
Tip: In the event of a change from agreed to received or vice versa, the outstanding items must be accrued to ensure that VAT is not charged twice or not at all. If you are unsure, please contact your trustee.
Important: The above instructions and examples are only intended to familiarize you with the possibilities of the bexio software. If you have any questions regarding the correct processing of VAT, please contact your trustee or the FTA directly.