If you're self-employed in the UK or EU and tired of paying 80–150 € a quarter to an accountant for filling out a form you could do yourself in under 30 minutes — this guide is for you.
What's a quarterly VAT return?
Every 3 months you tell your tax authority how much VAT you charged clients (output) vs. how much VAT you paid suppliers (input). The difference is what you owe — or, if you paid more in VAT than you collected, what they owe you.
Form names by country
- UK (HMRC): VAT Return — through MTD-compatible software
- Ireland: VAT3 — bi-monthly
- Spain: Modelo 303 — quarterly
- France: CA3 — monthly or quarterly
- Germany: UStVA — monthly or quarterly
- Italy: LIPE — quarterly
- Romania: D300 — monthly or quarterly
The 4 numbers you always need
- Total net sales for the period (excluding VAT)
- Total output VAT collected
- Total net purchases for the period
- Total input VAT paid
VAT due = (2) − (4). Most authorities expect payment within 20–25 days of the period end.
How CountAssist makes this 20 minutes instead of 2 hours
- Go to Accounting → Export → Quarterly VAT
- Pick year + quarter, download the CSV
- The 4 numbers above are at the top, already split by VAT rate (20% / 10% / 5%)
- Copy into your government portal, submit
Tip: keep the quarterly CSV as backup in case of audit. It has dates, invoice numbers, clients, net amounts and VAT — everything HMRC or your local tax office can ask for.