New VAT3 format?

case_sensitive

Hi all,

I run a small business and I submit my VAT3 returns every 2 months, have been doing so for about 18 months now.

I use a small business management platfor called Bullet to track sales and purchases and it generates a simple XML file (.vt3) for me at the end of the period that I upload to ROS. It really contains only 2 interesting numbers, labelled "sales" and "purchs"; Sales-purchs is my net liability, Revenue deduct that amount from my account. Simples.

Except that this month ROS refused to accept my file, with the error "postponed accounting is missing in one of the records"

It seems that the format has changed, and that an additional value is now required. However, neither Bullet nor ROS/Revenue support have been able to tell me what that should look like!

Here's what the file, with sample numbers, looked like for March - April, but was not accepted.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <VAT3 name="Company Name" regnum="VATID" startdate="01/03/2025" enddate="30/04/2025" sales="100" purchs="15" goodsto="0" goodsfrom="0" servicesto="0" servicesfrom="0" currency="E" type="0" filefreq="0" formversion="1" language="E" />

I'm assuming there was an update, that Revenue told the big players Xero, Sage and so on, what the new format was, but omitted the smaller fish. Anyone care to share what their most recent VAT3 upload looked like?

BhoyRayzor

Yes the PA1 field for postponed accounting is mandatory now. Are you able to edit the report or file to include it, if you are not importing then it will be zero.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/tax-professionals/ebrief/2025/no-0892025.aspx

SureYWouldntYa

If you ever have an issue again, completing the form online manually is quite straight forward given there is only a few boxes to complete. Unless you consistently have EU or postponed accounting transactions to report you'll probably be as quick doing it manually rather than uploading a file.

case_sensitive

Sorted with the help of ROS helpdesk, on the 5th time of asking

To anyone who comes by here later looking for the answer.

there are lots of new additions, all detailed in the attached file for Devs, with a working sample XML file on the last page.

vat3api.pdf

the correct notation for postponed accounting is:

postponedAccounting="0"

and the camel case seems to matter.