Prepare the annual VAT return in SamBooks
14 min read
How to build the company's annual VAT return from data you've already recorded: what you need first, what happens when you press "Prepare", and what changes in the accounts.
What it's for
The Annual VAT card on the Tax returns page (Tax returns in the sidebar, page /dichiarativi/iva-annuale) prepares the year's VAT return from data already recorded during the year: issued and received invoices, self-invoices from reverse charge, calculated periodic VAT settlements, paid VAT F24 payments. The result is eight sections (VA, VE, VF, VJ, VH, VP, VL, VR) and, if the balance is a debit, an automatic accounting entry.
This guide covers the list, the Prepare button, what feeds each section, and what happens in the accounts. The XML file you download from here has its own guide: Download the annual VAT return XML and hand it to your accountant. For a more readable report (PDF/CSV) to hand to the professional, without going through the XML file, see Download the reconciliation worksheets. If instead you're looking for the periodic (monthly or quarterly) calculation this return draws its data from, that's a different page: Calculate the periodic VAT settlement in SamBooks.
Before you start
- You need a role with write permissions on accounting — Manager or Administrative. A Viewer can see the list and open the detail page, but gets a permission error if they press "Prepare"; the Logistics role isn't meant for the Tax returns area at all (it's scoped to warehouse, delivery notes, orders and shipments).
- If the company is on the flat-rate scheme, this function is unavailable: flat-rate taxpayers don't settle VAT periodically and don't file the annual return. If you try anyway, SamBooks refuses the operation with an explicit message, not a generic technical error.
- Before preparing the year, it helps to already have: the year's VAT settlements calculated (see the dedicated guide), the year's sales and purchase invoices recorded, any self-invoices from reverse charge, and the period's VAT F24 payments made. It isn't a technical block — SamBooks prepares the return anyway with whatever data it finds — but if something upstream is missing, the resulting balance will be incomplete: missing data doesn't "arrive later".
- Don't expect to read the balance, status or due date directly in this list or detail page: today those columns show a dash and the status label stays blank (see "What you won't find — and where to find it instead" below). The real figures are in the XML, in the reconciliation worksheet, or from Sam.
Step by step
1. Open the list and press "Prepare"
The page is titled Annual VAT return, subtitle "List of prepared annual VAT returns." Top right is the Prepare button: it opens a confirmation dialog, titled "Prepare Annual VAT return?", body "The 'Annual VAT return' return will be generated for the selected tax year, from the recorded data. The operation is idempotent: regenerating updates the existing result." — on that last sentence, an important clarification: read step 4 below, because the real behaviour is stricter than it sounds.
The Tax year field is pre-filled with the year before the current one (if today is 2026, it proposes 2025): you can change it to any year between 2000 and 2999. Confirming with Prepare, SamBooks aggregates the eight sections and, if the resulting balance is a debit, immediately posts the accounting transfer entry (see step 3). If there's no return yet, the list shows "No returns", with the suggestion "Ask Sam to prepare the VAT return for last year."
2. What feeds the eight sections
Each section aggregates different data, always for the chosen tax year:
- VA — taxpayer master data: legal name, VAT number, tax code, VAT scheme and tax regime, captured from the company's master data at the moment you prepare the return.
- VE — sales operations: sales invoices issued during the year, aggregated by VAT rate and nature (exempt, non-taxable, and so on). Reverse-charge self-invoices don't go here: they go into VJ, so the same taxable amount isn't counted twice.
- VF — purchase operations: purchase invoices recorded during the year (using the same date logic as periodic settlements — not necessarily the document date), aggregated by rate. It includes a separate sub-block for depreciable-asset purchases made during the year, and it distinguishes the gross tax on purchases from the actually deductible share, when a line has a deductibility percentage below 100%.
- VJ — reverse charge: self-invoices generated from intra-EU purchases, services from abroad and similar cases. Here the period is decided by the document date of the source purchase invoice, not by the date you recorded it: that's a different rule from section VF, so a foreign invoice received in late December and recorded in January can land in different years in the two sections.
- VH — LIPE summary: one row for each periodic VAT settlement of the year you've calculated, with periodicity, period, VAT owed/credit, balance, VAT to be paid and credit carried forward — taken exactly from what you see on the VAT Settlements page.
- VP — payments: the periodic VAT F24 forms and any December advance whose reference year is that tax year. The rule is the F24's reference year, not the date you paid it: a December F24 paid in January of the following year still belongs here. So does an F24 that has only been generated and not yet paid — in this section SamBooks doesn't tell paid and unpaid F24 forms apart.
- VL — annual settlement: the balance, calculated as VAT owed (sales operations + reverse charge) minus deductible VAT (purchases + the deductible share of reverse charge) minus the periodic payments and the December advance taken from section VP, on the same rule (they count by reference year, even if you haven't paid them yet). This is the figure that decides whether the next section is VR or an F24 payment.
- VR — refund or offset: filled in only if the VL balance is a credit; if it's a debit or break-even, it stays empty.
3. If the balance is a debit: the automatic transfer entry
When the annual settlement balance (VL) is positive, SamBooks posts a closing transfer entry in the journal by itself: it moves the amount from the account that collects the periods' VAT payable (Tax authority — VAT payable) to the account dedicated to the annual balance (Tax authority — annual VAT balance), reason code IVAANN, dated 31 December of the tax year. It isn't an entry you create yourself: it is written at the very moment the return is prepared.
The debit balance is then paid with an F24, tax code 6099, by 16 March of the following year. This F24 isn't generated automatically together with the return: you (or Sam) compose it yourself from the F24 section, choosing "Compose F24 manually" and entering tax code 6099 and the balance amount — read it from the XML, from the reconciliation worksheet, or by asking Sam, since you won't find it in this page's table. The full procedure for composing an F24 manually, including the section's other options, is in the guide Generate an F24 in SamBooks.
4. Idempotency: preparing twice doesn't duplicate
If you press Prepare again for a year that's already prepared, SamBooks doesn't create a second return: it recognises one already exists and tells you with the message "Annual VAT return {year} was already prepared: result updated." You haven't created a duplicate.
Be careful about what "result updated" really means, though: it isn't a recalculation. SamBooks returns exactly the same eight sections computed the first time — the same snapshot, not a fresh version with today's data. If in the meantime you've recorded more invoices, corrected a settlement, or paid an extra F24, those changes don't flow into a return that's already prepared.
To genuinely redo a year's figures you first have to remove the existing return, and how you do that depends on how it was created:
- you asked Sam for it: ask Sam, in chat, to undo that action (for example "undo the 2025 VAT return preparation"). Undoing removes the return together with the accounting transfer entry it produced, and frees the year: you can then prepare it again, and the sections are recomputed on the current data.
- you prepared it from the page button: that preparation isn't a Sam action, so there's nothing to undo, and no page in the product has a button that deletes a return. It stays the snapshot of the moment you made it.
So before preparing a year, it's worth being reasonably confident the upstream data is complete.
5. Open a year's detail page
Clicking a list row opens /dichiarativi/iva-annuale/{year}. At the top you'll find the title "VAT return {year}", a status label that today stays blank (see the next paragraph), and two buttons: Download XML (dedicated guide) and Open F24, which takes you to the general F24 section — not a pre-filled form, it's just a navigation shortcut. Below the title, a fixed notice reminds you that the XML file downloadable here is a reconciliation report, not the electronic filing for the Italian Revenue Agency: submission always stays with your accountant.
Further down you'll find a row of four fields — VAT owed, VAT credit, Final balance, Balance due — and two tabs, Sections and AI history. Read the next paragraph before expecting anything from this part of the page.
What you won't find — and where to find it instead
Today the annual VAT return's list and detail page reliably show only the year. The detail page's four fields (VAT owed, VAT credit, Final balance, Balance due) and the list's Balance due, Balance and Tax code columns all show a dash, and the Status label — in the list and on the detail page — stays blank: it's a known mismatch between what the engine computes and what the interface expects to read, not a product choice. The same applies to the detail page's Sections tab, which today only shows the eight labels (VA, VE, VF, VJ, VL, VH, VP, VR) with no values inside, and to the AI history tab, which shows fixed text instead of the real action history.
The real figures exist — they're calculated and saved — they simply don't show up yet in this part of the page. To read them, you have three reliable routes:
- Download the return's XML (button at the top): it contains all eight sections with their values. Dedicated guide: Download the annual VAT return XML.
- Download the reconciliation worksheet as PDF or CSV, from the Tax returns page: it's built specifically to be readable, with numbered lines and a section comparing the annual figures against the periodic settlements. Dedicated guide: Download the reconciliation worksheets.
- Ask Sam, for example "what are the VE section's values for the 2025 VAT return?" or "what's the balance of the 2025 annual VAT return?": Sam reads the same already-prepared return and answers with the figures.
Checking the balance against periodic settlements
The annual VAT reconciliation worksheet (PDF or CSV, dedicated guide) ends with a section comparing two figures: the annual settlement balance and the algebraic sum of the year's periodic settlements (VAT to be paid minus credit carried forward), stating whether the gap falls within the rounding tolerance or needs checking.
It's an indicative check, and reading it takes one piece of context: the annual balance is already net of the periodic payments and the advance, while the periodic-settlements line is gross. If you've recorded the year's VAT F24 forms in SamBooks, the two figures differ by construction and the section flags a gap: on its own that isn't proof your data is wrong. Go through the gap with your accountant, who knows which of the two figures has to add up.
The comparison that always reads straight is the period-by-period one: section VH lists one row per settlement of the year, with the same figures you find under Accounting → VAT. If a period is missing from that list, or was voided without being recalculated, that's where the difference starts.
Ask Sam
You can ask Sam directly, in chat: "prepare the 2025 annual VAT return", "list the annual VAT returns I've already prepared", or "what are the VF section's values for the 2025 VAT return?". Sam uses the same engine as the "Prepare" button — same aggregation, same transfer entry, same idempotency rule — and every write action asked of Sam stays tracked: you can ask Sam to list its recent actions and to undo one of them. A preparation made from the page button doesn't have that option, because it isn't a Sam action. Undoing is asked for in chat: for the annual VAT return there's no screen listing those actions today (the detail page's "AI history" tab shows fixed text). Beyond that, button and chat reach the same result.
If something goes wrong
- A message about the flat-rate scheme not filing the annual VAT return — its text stays in Italian even in the English interface ("Il regime forfettario (RF19) non presenta la dichiarazione IVA annuale…"): your company is on the flat-rate scheme, so this function doesn't apply. It isn't a technical error — flat-rate taxpayers don't settle VAT periodically.
- A permission error, also in Italian ("Operazione non consentita per il ruolo corrente…: serve un ruolo con permessi di scrittura (Gestore o Amministrativo)") — your role in the company is Viewer, or another role without write permissions: you need a Manager or an Administrative user to prepare the return.
- I prepared the year, then corrected some invoices or a settlement: the balance doesn't change — that's expected, not a bug: the return is a snapshot of the moment you prepared it (see above). If you had asked Sam for it, you can have Sam undo that preparation and redo it; if you used the button, the snapshot stays as it is.
- I pressed Prepare twice: did I duplicate anything? — no: the second time, SamBooks recognises the year is already prepared and returns the same result, without creating anything new.
- I can't see the balance, status or due date in the table — that's a known interface gap, not a problem with your data: read the figures from the XML, the reconciliation worksheet, or by asking Sam (see above).
Frequently asked questions
How do I prepare the annual VAT return? Go to Tax returns → Annual VAT return and press "Prepare", choosing the tax year. SamBooks aggregates the eight sections from the data already recorded.
What do I need to do before preparing the annual VAT return? Have the year's sales and purchase invoices already recorded, the periodic settlements calculated, any reverse-charge self-invoices recorded, and the period's VAT F24 payments made. It isn't a technical block, but missing data upstream stays missing in the result too.
I clicked Prepare twice, did I create a duplicate? No: the second time, SamBooks recognises the year is already prepared and returns the same existing result, without duplicating it — but also without recalculating it with today's data.
Does the annual VAT return post anything to the journal? Yes, but only if the balance is a debit: an automatic transfer entry that moves the amount to the account dedicated to the annual balance.
What tax code is used for the annual VAT balance? Tax code 6099. You (or Sam) compose it into an F24 from the F24 section — it isn't generated automatically together with the return.
When is the annual VAT balance due? 16 March of the year following the tax year.
I'm on the flat-rate scheme, do I need to file the annual VAT return? No: the flat-rate scheme doesn't settle VAT periodically and doesn't file this return. SamBooks blocks the operation with an explicit message if you try anyway.
I recalculated a settlement, does the return update itself? No: an already-prepared return stays a snapshot of the data at the time it was prepared, even if you later correct the settlements or invoices it was built from. If you had prepared it by asking Sam, you can ask Sam to undo it and prepare it again: that's the only way the sections get recomputed.
Does the VH section match my settlements? Yes: VH lists one row per periodic VAT settlement of the year, with the same figures you find under Accounting → VAT.
Where do I see the year's VAT owed and VAT credit? Not in this page's table: download the XML or the reconciliation worksheet, or ask Sam.
Can I ask Sam to prepare the VAT return? Yes: you can ask Sam directly to prepare it, list existing returns, or read a specific section's values.