Introduction - Tax Filing

A filing period collects the tax you charged customers and the tax you were charged by vendors, then nets them into one figure you either owe or reclaim.

Building a VAT return from your books, box by box.

SorviAI Finance assembles the numbers, and for UK VAT it can submit them for you: the product connects to HMRC under Making Tax Digital, so a finalised return can go straight from here.

The VAT Filing screen showing a draft quarterly return for 01/07/2026 to 30/09/2026, with the VAT registration number in the header and tabs for Unsubmitted Return and All Returns. A summary strip gives a due date of 06/11/2026, VAT Payable of 4,488.59 and an accounting basis of Accrual. Return Details lists boxes 1 to 8, from VAT due on sales through to dispatches to EU member states, with an Adjust link on boxes 1 and 4. — Every box is calculated from your books. Adjust appears only where the return allows a manual figure.

How the figures are gathered

Every posted transaction carries its tax on each line. A filing period is simply a date range: SorviAI Finance sums the tax on everything posted within it, splits that by rate and by direction, and nets the two sides.

Output taxCharged on your sales
Input taxCharged to you on purchases
Net positionPayable, or reclaimable

Accrual and cash bases

Basis	Tax counted when	Suits
Accrual	The invoice or bill is posted	Most businesses. It is the default in most jurisdictions.
Cash	The payment is received or made	Smaller businesses where permitted, and where customers pay late.

The basis must match what you registered for with your tax authority. Changing it mid-year makes periods incomparable and is not something to do because a number looked nicer.

Filing to HMRC

For UK VAT the product talks to HMRC directly. You authorise the connection once, and from then on it can read your filing obligations, submit a finalised return, and read back what HMRC says you owe and what it has received.

AuthoriseOne-off connection to HMRC
FinaliseLocks the return locally
SubmitSent under Making Tax Digital
AcceptedHMRC confirms, or rejects

A return moves through Draft, Finalised, Submitted, and then Accepted or Rejected by HMRC. Only the first two are yours to undo.

What SorviAI Finance does not do

It submits UK VAT only. HMRC Making Tax Digital is the one filing integration; every other jurisdiction is assemble-here, file-there.
It does not know your jurisdiction's rules. It sums what you told it, at the rates you set.
It does not stop you filing a period with drafts still in it.
It does not lock a period automatically once a return is filed. Locking is a separate, deliberate step.