Before you start
- Taxes & Forms shows when the Payroll or Books service is on. If it's missing from your menu, open Settings › Services, tick Books and press Save services. Only the owner can do this.
- If your business is registered for VAT, the business owner switches VAT on. In Settings › VAT, tick Use VAT in this business and Registered for VAT with the BIR, then press Save VAT settings. VAT shows while the Invoices & VAT service is on.
Until VAT is on, the VAT summary says why its totals are 0.00 and links to Open VAT settings.
Check your VAT summary
Open Taxes & Forms. Set Start and End to the months your VAT return covers, and press Apply. The VAT summary shows:
- VAT output: the VAT on your posted invoices, less any credit notes;
- VAT input: the VAT you can claim back on posted bills and on expenses;
- VAT due: output minus input.
Transactions lists each invoice, credit note, bill and expense counted. Export CSV downloads the list.
Only posted invoices and bills count. A draft is left out until you post it.
Work out the quarterly levies
The Green Fund Levy and Business Levy are quarterly taxes on your gross sales or receipts. Ask your accountant whether you file on Posted invoice sales or Recorded receipts.
Press Quarterly levies. It opens on the latest quarter with sales in it. To see another, choose the Year and Quarter, then that Basis. Type a Manual adjustment if your accountant gives you one, and press Apply.
The page shows your Gross sales/receipts, the Green Fund Levy at 0.3% and the Business Levy at 0.6%, all in TT$. Quarter support lists the invoices or receipts used.
Fill in a tax form
Fillable Tax Forms is further down the Taxes & Forms page. Choose a form under Templates:
- PAYE / Health Surcharge Monthly Return
- PAYE Annual Return / TD4 Summary
- VAT Return Worksheet
- NIS Contributions (NI184 / NI187)
- Health Surcharge Worksheet
The payroll forms fill in from your finalised and paid pay runs with a pay date in the period shown. Change the dates, or type over any figure you need to. To undo your changes, press Use Payroll Data: it fills the form from payroll again for the dates you chose. Where a form has an employee table, choose a person under Employee name to see their amounts.
The VAT Return Worksheet fills in your VAT registration number only. Type its figures from the VAT summary.
Press Export PDF to download the form. A copy is kept with your records and goes into future audit packs.
For NIS, Open official NI forms takes you to your finalised pay runs. The official NI184 and NI187 are made there: see Bank files, statutory exports and NI forms.
Open filing guidance opens the official instructions for the form. Check each form before you use it: you submit your returns to the BIR and the National Insurance Board (NIB) yourself.
Track each return in the filing calendar
The Filing calendar, at the bottom of the page, lists each return with its Period, Due date and Status. A late return shows Overdue in red.
- When a return is ready, press Prepared.
- To keep the form with it, choose the PDF under Choose a generated export… and press Link.
- Once you've filed, type the Filed on date and the BIR reference (the acknowledgement number), and press Mark filed. The page stays on that return and shows Marked as filed. beside it.
The calendar runs six months ahead and adds the coming months by itself. It starts with the filings you chose in setup: PAYE, Health Surcharge and TD4 if you're PAYE registered, NIS if you're NIS registered, and VAT if you're VAT registered.
To add another return, such as the Business Levy or Green Fund Levy, go to Settings › Compliance. Under On calendar, choose Yes on its row and press Save. It's on the calendar straight away.
Get reminder emails
Owners and accountants get an email before each return is due. It lists the returns due, with a button to open the filing calendar. If a return still isn't marked filed on its due day, another email comes that morning.
The first email comes 7 days before the due date. To change the number of days, or to stop the emails, go to Settings › Compliance and change Reminder emails.
Good to know
- A payroll form shows zeros? Set End at the top of Taxes & Forms to your last pay date or later, and press Apply.
What's next
See how these figures land in your books with Reports, your books and the audit pack.