# File a Return

The run-through below is the whole job.

It is deliberately boring and it is in this order because each step catches a class of error the next one cannot.

![The draft VAT return with a Finalise Return button at the top right, the period and due date beside it, and the nine boxes listed below with their calculated values.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/tax-filing/vat-return.png)

*Finalise is the local step. Submitting to the tax authority is separate and stays with you.*

## The two reports

- **Tax Summary** (the position): Tax collected, tax paid and the net figure. Read this first to see whether the answer is roughly what you expected.
- **Tax by Rate** (the return): The same figures split per rate and per direction. This is what you transcribe, box by box.

Run both for exactly the same date range. Most reconciliation problems in this module turn out to be two reports run for two slightly different periods.

## When the numbers look wrong

| Symptom | Check first |
| --- | --- |
| Output tax lower than expected | Draft invoices still unsent in the period. |
| Input tax lower than expected | Bills still sitting unapproved. |
| A domestic sale is zero-rated | The customer's tax treatment. |
| Tax on a line at an odd rate | The item default, then the line override. |
| Return disagrees with the Trial Balance | Date range, then transactions posted since you ran it. |
| A rate you do not recognise | An expense line where somebody typed a rate by hand. |

> **Warning:**
>
> **Check drafts first, every time**
>
> It is the cause often enough that starting anywhere else is a waste of your afternoon. Filter invoices and bills to draft, dated in the period, before you investigate anything clever.

## After a period is filed

Backdating a transaction into a filed period changes numbers you have already declared. SorviAI Finance will let you, because sometimes an invoice genuinely arrives late, but it is a decision rather than an accident.

- Small differences are usually corrected in the next period, if your authority allows it.
- Large differences normally need an amended return.
- Either way, record why. A note on the transaction is worth an hour of archaeology next year.
- Closing the period is what stops it happening by accident.