How cash accounting VAT works

What is it for?

Under the cash accounting VAT regime, VAT on sales only becomes chargeable when the customer pays (or at the time limit), not when the invoice is issued. fiscaldoo keeps that VAT in a suspended VAT account while the invoice has not been paid, shows it in a map by customer and by document, and only takes it to the periodic VAT return in the month of receipt.

Pending validation by a certified accountant: conditions for joining the regime, notification to the AT, maximum chargeability period and invoicing and receipt obligations (DL 71/2013). The product does not validate these conditions.

When to use it?

• The company has opted for the cash accounting VAT regime and wants to know how much VAT is still to be received and when it becomes chargeable.
• You are about to prepare the periodic return and want to confirm that unpaid sales were not included.

If the company is not in the regime, there is no suspended VAT to report: see the VAT settlement and the periodic return. The general VAT configuration is in How to configure VAT.

Where to find it?

• Opting in: Settings › Users & Companies › Companies (company record), PT Localization tab, VAT cash accounting regime (DL 71/2013) block, Opt for the cash VAT regime button.
• The map: Accounting › Declare › VAT › What is there to do with the VAT?, in the Supporting lists group, Cash-basis VAT suspended (Suspended VAT map window).

Before you start

• Opting in is done with the Administrator profile, which can open the company record.
• The Suspended VAT map opens and generates with each of these profiles on its own: Accountant, Certified Accountant / Fiscal Manager, Fiscal officer and Fiscal administration. With only the Administrative or Auditor profile, the Declare menu does not appear.
• In this version, first make the company that is opting in the active one, in the top right corner. The opt-in window applies to the active company and shows it in the Company field, even if you opened another company's record (see “Common problems”).
• The company issues invoices in a certified, active series: see Document series. In the demo, Empresa Demonstração, Lda already has the FT D26 series in the Sales journal and a receipts journal (Recibos (RG)).
• The line's product has an internal reference (for example “Generic service”, code SERV): the AT requires the product code on every line.

How to use it

The example was done at Empresa Demonstração, Lda, on 05/11/2026, with the Accountant profile only (and the Administrator in step 1).

1. In the top right corner, make the company that is opting in the active one (in this version, the window uses the active company and not the one whose record is open). Open that company's record and, on the PT Localization tab, click Opt for the cash VAT regime. Check the window's Company field and fill in Communicated to the Tax Authority on (15/10/2025), Regime starts on (01/01/2026) and Registered for VAT since (01/03/2020), which are required. Click Confirm. The block now shows VAT cash accounting regime ticked, Cash VAT since, Option communicated on and the Leave the cash VAT regime button. fiscaldoo creates the cash rates (for example 23% (IVA de caixa), 13% (IVA de caixa) and 6% (IVA de caixa), and those for the Azores and Madeira) and uses account 24331 IVA - Liquidado - regime de caixa (por receber). It sends nothing to the AT: the notification is the date you entered.
2. In Accounting › Record › Sales and collections › Customer invoices, click New. Choose the customer (Papelaria Central, Lda) and, in Add a line, the product Serviço genérico. The tax comes in automatically as 23% (IVA de caixa). When you choose the product, the price is set to €0.00: then enter the description (Manutenção anual (IVA de caixa)) and the price (1.000,00). The total shows Untaxed Amount €1,000.00, IVA 23% €230.00 and Total €1,230.00.
3. Click Confirm. The invoice is Posted with the number FT D26/34. In the example there is a second invoice to the same customer, FT D26/35 (€500.00 + €115.00), which remains unpaid.
4. Open Cash-basis VAT suspended. The As of date is today. Click Generate. With both invoices issued and none paid, the map shows Suspended VAT €345.00 (€230.00 from FT D26/34 and €115.00 from FT D26/35), Of which chargeable by term €0.00 and one line per document: Customer, Document, Date, Document currency, Suspended VAT (document currency), Suspended VAT, Chargeable on (30/11/2027) and Chargeable by term.
5. When the customer pays FT D26/34, open the invoice and click Issue receipt. The window shows the Journal, the Bank account, the Value (€1,230.00), the Payment Date (today) and the Memo. Click Create Payment. The invoice changes to Paid, receipt RG D26/16 is issued and the VAT becomes chargeable.
6. Generate the map again: FT D26/34 drops off the list and only FT D26/35 remains, with €115.00.
7. To see what goes into the return, open the periodic return for the month of receipt (in the example, November 2026) and calculate it. The VAT from FT D26/34 goes into the standard-rate fields for that month. FT D26/35, still unpaid, does not.

Expected result

For invoice FT D26/34 (€1,000.00 + €230.00, dated 05/11/2026), fiscaldoo posts:

When	Account	Debit	Credit
Invoice FT D26/34 (05/11/2026)	2111 Clientes gerais	€1,230.00
	721 Prestações de serviços		€1,000.00
	24331 IVA - Liquidado - regime de caixa (por receber)		€230.00
Receipt RG D26/16 (05/11/2026), Recibos (RG) journal	120002 Recebimentos Pendentes	€1,230.00
	2111 Clientes gerais		€1,230.00
Chargeability, entry CABA/2026/00001 (05/11/2026), Cash Basis Taxes journal	24331 IVA - Liquidado - regime de caixa (por receber)	€230.00
	2433 IVA - Liquidado		€230.00

The chargeability entry also moves the base: €1,000.00 debited and credited on 721 Prestações de serviços, the second with the return's tag.

In the demo's November 2026 return, calculated before the receipt, field 3 (standard-rate base) had €120.00 and field 4 (tax) €27.60, from the month's other sales: both invoices had already been issued and were not included. After the receipt, field 3 became €1,120.00 and field 4 €257.60: an extra €1,000.00 and €230.00, from FT D26/34 only.

Pending validation by a certified accountant: reading of fields 3 and 4 of the return for VAT chargeable on receipt, and the rule that deductible VAT on purchases follows payment to the supplier.

Important notes

No receipt: chargeable after 12 months

Cash accounting VAT is not suspended forever. If the invoice is not paid, the VAT becomes chargeable at the latest in the period of the 12th month after the month of issue (DL 71/2013). For FT D26/35 (05/11/2026) that period is November 2027, so the map shows Chargeable on 30/11/2027. Generated with an As of date on or after that (for example 01/12/2027), the same document appears with Chargeable by term ticked and Of which chargeable by term €115.00.

In the demo, the November 2027 return, calculated with the invoice still unpaid, showed €500.00 in field 3 and €115.00 in field 4: FT D26/35 goes into that month without a receipt.

Pending validation by a certified accountant: treatment of VAT chargeable by term in the return and the entry that moves it from 24331 to 2433 (calculating the November 2027 return created no new entry in the Cash Basis Taxes journal).

Series with the cash accounting VAT mark

The Fiscal officer can mark a sales series as cash accounting VAT: in Accounting › Configure › Journals, open the series' journal (in the demo, Sales), tick VAT cash accounting series and save. With only the Certified Accountant / Fiscal Manager profile, this option does not appear. Without the mark, the wording “IVA - regime de caixa” appears when a line uses a cash rate (in the demo, the PDF of FT D26/34 has it). The mark is only accepted for a company in the regime; for another, on saving: “Company "Empresa Teste Filial" is not in the VAT cash accounting regime, so series "Vendas" cannot be marked as VAT cash accounting. Ask the administrator to opt for the regime in the company's fiscal settings first.”

Pending validation on screen: the wording “IVA - regime de caixa” on an invoice from a marked series where no line uses the cash rate.

Leaving the regime

The Leave the cash VAT regime button is on the company record. Leaving the regime is not covered by this article.

What the map does not see

The map only lists invoices to customers of the active company, one line per document, and does not show VAT on purchases. The XLSX and PDF exports are in the window and were not used in this article.

Common problems

“Company … is not in the VAT cash accounting regime: there is no suspended VAT to report”

• Symptom: when you click Generate, an Invalid Operation window: “Company "Empresa Teste Filial" is not in the VAT cash accounting regime: there is no suspended VAT to report. If that is the case, ask the administrator to opt for the regime in the company's fiscal settings.”
• Cause: the active company has not opted for the regime. Anyone who works in more than one company also sees the Company field in the map window.
• What to do: check the company at the top of the screen. If it is the right one and should be in the regime, ask the administrator to opt in (step 1).

I opted for the regime, but the company record still does not have it

• Symptom: you opened a company's record, clicked Opt for the cash VAT regime and Confirm, and that record's block still shows the opt-in button.
• Cause: in this version, the window applies to the active company (the one in the top right corner), which appears in the window's Company field, not to the company whose record is open. In the demo, with Empresa Teste Portugal active and Empresa Demonstração, Lda's record open, the window showed “Empresa Teste Portugal” and that is the one that joined the regime.
• What to do: choose the right company at the top and repeat step 1. If a company joined the regime by mistake, talk to the certified accountant before issuing invoices in it.

“Cannot confirm yet”

• Symptom: when confirming the invoice: “One thing is missing: Line(s) 1 have no article with an internal reference. The Tax Authority requires the code of the article (SAF-T ProductCode) on every line of an invoice; a line with only free text cannot be reported. …” (choose the product in each line's Product column — if the column is not shown, turn it on in the column menu on the right of the header; for anything not among your products, use the generic product “Serviço genérico” (code SERV) and describe what you are charging in the line's Description, or create the product first).
• Cause: the line was written as text only.
• What to do: choose the product on each line and confirm again.

“The receipt date … is after today”

• Symptom: in Issue receipt, with a future Payment Date, on clicking Create Payment: “A data do recibo (03/12/2026) é posterior a hoje (05/11/2026). Um recibo regista um pagamento já recebido: use a data de hoje ou uma anterior. Depois de emitido, a série fica fechada a recibos datados até 03/12/2026, e anular o recibo não a reabre (o número e a data de um documento anulado ficam na série). Nada foi registado.” (the receipt date is after today; a receipt records a payment already received, so use today or an earlier date; once issued, the series is closed to receipts dated up to that date, and cancelling the receipt does not reopen it; nothing was recorded)
• What to do: issue the receipt on the day you receive the payment, with that day's date. The VAT becomes chargeable on that date.