How to Complete a VAT3 Return in Ireland

The VAT3 return records the VAT you must pay, or can reclaim, for one taxable period. Four boxes carry the VAT: T1 (VAT on sales), T2 (VAT on purchases), and T3 or T4 (the difference, payable or repayable). Five more boxes carry values for trade with other EU countries and for imports under postponed accounting. The return is due by the 19th of the month after the period, or the 23rd if you file on ROS.

The rules below come from Revenue's own pages, linked in each section and listed at the end, all checked on 27 September 2026.

The boxes, as Revenue defines them

From How do you complete a VAT 3 return? (Revenue, published 28 July 2026):

The same page adds two rules:

• A credit note you issue or receive may adjust the T1 and T2 figures.
• If no VAT is payable or repayable for the period, you still send the return, marked zero at T1, T2, T3 and T4. Do not write "nil" on any line.

When the return is due

From When VAT becomes payable (Revenue, published 28 July 2026):

• File and pay by the 19th day of the month after the end of each taxable period.
• If you file on ROS (Revenue Online Service), the time limit for filing the return is extended to the 23rd day of the month.
• A taxable period normally lasts two months, starting on 1 January, March, May, July, September and November.
• The Collector-General may authorise four-monthly returns if your annual VAT liability is between €3,001 and €14,400, and six-monthly returns if it is between €1 and €3,000.
• Revenue may authorise monthly returns on request; they are generally for businesses that are always owed a repayment.
• Once a year you also complete a Return of Trading Details (RTD): your total purchases and sales for the year, by VAT rate. The form appears in your ROS inbox.
• Late or missing returns and payments can bring interest and penalties.

Invoice basis or moneys received basis

From Who may opt for the moneys received basis? (Revenue, published 10 October 2025):

• On the normal basis, VAT is due when you make the supply or issue the invoice. On the moneys received basis, it is due when you are paid.
• If you are registered for VAT, you may apply for the moneys received basis if your turnover does not exceed, or is not likely to exceed, €2,000,000 in any continuous 12 months, or if at least 90% of your supplies go to customers who are not registered for VAT or cannot claim a full VAT deduction. Revenue says the second condition applies to retailers, public houses, restaurants and similar businesses selling mostly to private individuals.
• It cannot be used for transactions with a connected person, construction services supplied by a sub-contractor to a principal contractor, certain long leases created before 1 July 2008, goods and services acquired from other EU countries, or imports.
• The normal invoicing requirements still apply.

Services you buy from abroad

Revenue's page on self-accounting for VAT on received services (published 7 July 2026) gives this example: a business (ABC Ltd in Revenue's example) charged €100,000 for consultancy by a German business accounts for Irish VAT of €23,000 (23%) in T1 of its Irish VAT return, and may also be able to reclaim it in T2 of the same return.

What to decide with your accountant

• Whether your business uses the invoice basis or the moneys received basis.
• Which of your EU sales and purchases are goods and which are services, for the E and ES boxes.
• Whether you must self-account for VAT on services bought from abroad.
• How a credit note affects the return for the period.

What the NumWise draft contains

• T1: VAT on sales on your business's basis, set in Settings: on the invoice date (invoice basis) or when your customer pays (moneys received basis), less the VAT on credit notes issued in the period, plus the VAT you account for on purchases from abroad under the reverse charge.
• T2: reclaimable VAT on costs, by the date of the supplier invoice, for the business share of each cost, reverse charge included.
• T3 and T4: the difference between T1 and T2, after each is rounded to whole euro.
• E1, ES1, E2 and ES2: goods and services sold to businesses in other EU countries and bought from suppliers there, from the VAT treatment you choose on each invoice and expense.
• Not included: VAT on goods imported from outside the EU, box PA1 and the VIES return.

The figures are drafts for you and your accountant to check, and the exports say so on their first line. NumWise does not file the return: you file it on ROS.

To see the draft built from your own invoices and costs, start a 7-day free trial. No card needed.

Related: VAT rates in Ireland for 2026 and the VAT registration threshold.

Sources

All checked on 27 September 2026.

• Revenue, How do you complete a VAT 3 return?, published 28 July 2026.
• Revenue, When VAT becomes payable, published 28 July 2026.
• Revenue, Who may opt for the moneys received basis?, published 10 October 2025.
• Revenue, Self-accounting for VAT on received services, published 7 July 2026.