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How is my VAT return calculated

Written by: Valesca Wilms

Updated on: March 30, 2026

Reading time: 2 minutes

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What is a periodic VAT return?

The major purpose of it is to inform the Federal Public Service, Finance Department of:

  • The value of transactions carried out with your clients and VAT due on them

  • The value of transactions carried out with the suppliers/service providers (incoming transactions) and the deductible VAT

The return shows you the difference between the VAT due and the deductible VAT. If it is in favour of VAT due, then you will be owing the state the particular amount. If it comes in the favour of deductible VAT, then state will be owing you. To explore further into this subject, please refer to this source.

How do the app calculates your VAT return?

There is a specific code for each category fixed by the tax administration. What the app does is, it computes the specific invoice or ticket and then adds it to a particular category defined by code number. For example:

This is the screenshot of the auto generated VAT return by the app. You can clearly see the categories on the left hand side, the relevant code in the middle and the accumulated values on the right hand side. Once, you will click on the specific row, the breakdown of the accumulation will appear as you can see underneath:

After the generation, you can easily export this document from the application and then file your VAT return on the Intervat platform after importing this document over there.

Note: When you will file your VAT return on Intervat, the codes will be match with what you can see on Intervat.

Valesca Wilms

Author - Valesca Wilms

As content marketing lead at Accountable Belgium, Valesca writes about freelancing, self-employment, and taxes based on her own experience as a freelancer.

Who is Valesca ?

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