Corrections ledger
The problem it solves
Refunds do not respect filing deadlines. You file June’s return on 25 July; on 28 July a customer returns a June order. The June return is already submitted — you cannot amend it, because the IOSS scheme does not allow re-filing a period. Instead, corrections to a filed period go into Part 3 of a later return: you state the period being corrected, the member state of consumption, and the total VAT correction — nothing else, no standard/reduced split, and the amount can be negative.
The corrections ledger is a Pro feature that does this bookkeeping automatically. It requires a Pro license — see Licensing.
How entries are created
Once a month is marked as filed, any refund or adjustment against an order in that month no longer touches the month’s locked figures. Instead the plugin writes a ledger entry:
- Period corrected — the month the original sale was declared in (
YYYY-MM). - Country — the member state of consumption from the original order.
- VAT delta (EUR) — the VAT change, converted with the order’s original captured FX rate, so the correction reverses exactly what was declared. Refunds produce negative deltas; multiple corrections for the same period and country accumulate.
Refunds against months that are still open never reach the ledger — they simply reduce the open month’s figures directly.
How the report surfaces them
Each month’s return report includes a Corrections section listing the ledger entries accumulated since your last filing, grouped by period and country — the exact three values the return’s Part 3 boxes ask for (tax period, country code, total VAT correction). Enter them alongside that month’s supply lines when you file, then mark the month as filed; the carried corrections are marked as declared with it.
Where a correction makes your net position with a member state negative, that overpayment is refunded to you directly by that member state — the return’s grand total cannot go negative, and there is no mechanism to net it off against other countries’ VAT. The report shows negative country positions as they are; the refund process itself happens between you (or your intermediary) and the member state.
The three-year window
Corrections can only be made within three years of the date the original return was due. The ledger tracks the correction against its original period, and the report flags entries approaching or past that window. A refund whose original period has aged out of the window can no longer be corrected through an IOSS return — at that point, talk to your intermediary or advisor about whether any direct claim with the member state is worth pursuing.
Keep the paper trail
Goods returned after delivery are exactly the case the record-keeping duty cares about: the EU’s guidance expects you to refund the customer, correct the return, and keep proof of the return of goods in your records. The ledger keeps the numeric side; keep the RMA/return documentation with your other order records. The transaction register export includes refund events so the two can be reconciled.
What it does not do
The ledger records corrections; it does not judge them. Whether a partial refund, a goodwill credit, or a reshipment constitutes a correction to the taxable amount is occasionally a judgment call — when in doubt, confirm with your tax advisor before filing.