After purchase invoices for services have been imported from Isah into a Belgian accounting system, it may be necessary to correct the VAT return. You can configure settings to ensure that the VAT return will automatically be correct in these cases.
Entering VAT on goods or services
When a product or service is delivered by a supplier from a EU country, or by a contracting partner, the VAT is reverse-charged. If the VAT is reverse-charged, the VAT sum must be claimed back as well as paid via the VAT return. On balance, the VAT sum payable will be zero.
In a Belgian accounting system, the sums of these types of purchase invoices are entered in the appropriate VAT boxes as follows: The sum to be reclaimed is inserted in Box 59 - Deductible VAT. The VAT sum to be paid is inserted either in Box 55 (intra-Community acquisition of goods), or in Box 56 (intra-Community acquisition of services/services performed by contracting partner).
The ledger account used on the invoice determines the type of the acquisition: acquisition of goods or acquisition of services. In the ledger account settings, you specify the type of VAT that applies to the account. The ledger account settings therefore ensure that the correct VAT sums are inserted into the appropriate boxes.
Creating suspense accounts for VAT on goods or services
It is possible to use multiple VAT suspense accounts on a single purchase invoice: one for VAT on goods and one for VAT on services. For each VAT code of the 'Purchase' type, you can specify the VAT suspense account to be used for VAT postings (Financial VAT policies form, Ledger account field).
The search path for the VAT suspense account is used to locate the correct ledger account. If a VAT suspense account is filled in for the VAT code chosen, this ledger account will be selected. Otherwise, the VAT suspense account from the safety net is used (General Settings module, Ledger settings folder, Safety net accounts form, Safety net accounts 3 tab, VAT suspense account field). If no account is specified in that field either, the VAT will be posted to the contingency account (Safety net accounts form, Safety net accounts 3 tab, Contingency account field).
If you enter the correct VAT code in the supplier settings (Suppliers form, Financial tab, VAT code field), the correct VAT suspense account will be used automatically.
The purchase invoice has separate lines for every suspense account. Multiple suspense accounts will therefore result in multiple lines.
Example
Belgian company ABC manufactures air conditioners. The components for the air conditioners are purchased from a German supplier, and the air conditioners are installed by a Belgian installation company.
ABC receives purchase invoices from both companies. The VAT sums on these invoices must be processed differently, as goods are purchased from the German supplier, and services are procured from the Belgian installation company (the contracting partner). The VAT to be paid for the German supplier must be posted to Box 55, and the VAT to be paid for the Belgian installation company must be posted to Box 56.
For the German supplier, 'Intra-Community acquisition of goods' is specified as the VAT code. No VAT suspense account is linked to the VAT code 'Intra-Community acquisition of goods'. The safety net account is used for journalizing the VAT lines. The account filled in here is called 'VAT suspense account for goods'.
For the Belgian installation company, 'Acquisition of services by contracting partner' is specified as the VAT code. The ledger account 'VAT suspense account for services' is linked to the VAT code 'Acquisition of services by contracting partner'. This suspense account is used for journalizing the VAT line.
In the financial application, the VAT suspense account for goods has been set as the 'Goods account'. The VAT suspense account for services has been set as the 'Services account'.
The VAT is divided among the VAT boxes in accordance with Belgian law as follows: