VAT3 returns: how Irish VAT gets filed and paid

Updated: July 2026

Every VAT-registered business in Ireland files a VAT3 return, normally every two months, through Revenue Online Service. The return itself is short. Four numbers do most of the work, and two of them come straight from arithmetic you can check on our VAT calculator.

The boxes that matter

• T1 is the VAT you charged on sales in the period.
• T2 is the VAT you paid on business purchases that you are entitled to reclaim.
• T3 is what you owe Revenue when T1 is bigger. T4 is your refund when T2 is bigger.
• E1, E2, ES1, ES2 record your intra-EU sales and purchases of goods and services, which feed VIES and Intrastat reporting.
• PA1 records the customs value of imports where you used postponed accounting.

Deadlines

The standard taxable period is two months: January and February, March and April, and so on. The return and payment are due by the 19th of the month after the period ends, extended to the 23rd when you both file and pay through ROS, which almost everyone does. Smaller businesses can be put on four-monthly, six-monthly or annual filing by Revenue, which reduces paperwork but not the tax.

The RTD

Once a year you also file a Return of Trading Details, a statistical breakdown of your sales and purchases by VAT rate. It carries no payment, but ROS blocks tax clearance and can hold refunds when it is outstanding, so treat it as a real deadline rather than an optional extra.

Getting the arithmetic right

Most VAT3 errors are not fraud, they are rate mix-ups: a 9% supply keyed at 13.5%, or VAT reclaimed on entertainment costs where no deduction is allowed. Reconcile your till and invoice totals against the return before you submit. If the VAT on a figure looks odd, work it backwards with the reverse tab on the calculator and see what rate was actually applied.