System requirements and settings

System requirements

  • Legislation for Germany or Austria
  • Appropriate activity code and parameter settings
  • Germany: If you do not want to enter or upload the VAT returns and Recapitulative statements to the ELSTER web portal but instead submit them directly online, the Sage X3 ELSTER Client must be installed on at least one workstation. For more details, refer to Generating tax declarations.
  • Austria: For the mandatory online submission of VAT returns and Recapitulative statements, you must register with the Steuer-Web-Portal of the Austrian tax authorities.

The tax declaration functions only consider postings in the main legal ledger of the company. The main legal ledger currency must be Euros. The tax calculation is based on VAT on debit. Automatic VAT on payment is not supported and can be managed manually. Only actual accounting entries are exported.

In all document types relevant for German or Austrian VAT declarations, tax on debit and/or tax on payment must be activated to avoid any errors.

Setting activity codes and parameters

Activity codes

The following must be active:

  • MUL - Multi-company business partner
  • LEG - Multi-legislation management

Companies included in VAT declarations must have a legislation assigned.

Parameters

If you are defining a company group for “umsatzsteuerliche Organschaften,” the leading company code must be entered in the VATLECMP - Leading company parameter (LOC chapter, GER group) to use the legal master data like tax number, address, etc., for the tax declaration in the Management section.

Other parameters for export paths, etc., need to be defined for the company group the same way as for a single company.

The DCLVATDAT - Date for tax declaration parameter (CPT chapter, VAT group) specifies whether the data determination based on the accounting date or the document date. This parameter applies to all tax declarations.

  • Company level
  • Values: Accounting date or Document date

The GERVAT – VAT Germany and AUTVAT – VAT Austria parameters (LOC chapter, GER group) must be set for all companies that are used in the German or Austrian VAT declaration. If the parameter is not set for a company, it is not possible to create a German or Austrian VAT declaration for this company, even if the legislation is German or Austrian.

  • Company level
  • Values: Yes or No

The GERRSEXTMP - Temporary journal export parameter (LOC chapter, GER group) relates to the Recapitulative statement only and controls the behavior of the Recapitulative statement export for temporary journals or journal errors.

  • Company level
  • Values:
    • Yes: Export is possible (after a warning message) even when there are temporary journals and/or journal errors. Journal errors can be resolved on export; temporary journals are exported.
    • No: Export is only possible if there are no temporary journals and/or journal errors.

This only affects the file export. Reports, (i.e., control reports) can always be printed, even when there are journal errors.

The VATVILPAT – VAT file path parameter (LOC chapter, GER group) specifies the directory for the export on the server. 

  • Company level
  • Value: Enter the file path for the directory.

The RSVILPAT – Recap. statement file path parameter (LOC chapter, GER group) specifies the path for the export directory on the server for the ELSTER transfer file.

  • Company level
  • Value: Enter the file path for the directory.

The VATLECMP – Leading company parameter (LOC chapter, GER group) identifies a leading company for an existing group when taxable entities are subject to a turnover tax (“umsatzsteuerliche Organschaft”). In this case, a company group can be used instead of a single company when preparing tax declarations.

Legal master data (address, tax number, etc.) of the leading company is used in the tax declaration.

  • Company level
  • Value: Company code

See Declarations for a company group below.

Common data values

To submit the tax declaration, certain master data must be entered.

Identifying the tax office

The tax office(s) where the company submits taxes must be entered as a business partner with the role Miscellaneous BP and include the name and address.

Company tax data

The company profile in the Companies function (GESCPY) must have the complete address information, including a phone number and the EU VAT number.

Additional local settings like federal state, national tax number, etc., must be entered on the Legal data screen. The tax office, created earlier as a Miscellaneous BP, must be selected.

Declarations for a company group (“umsatzsteuerliche Organschaft”)

The “umsatzsteuerliche Organschaften” is managed with a group of companies that contains those companies that must file joint tax declarations. This group must be set up in addition to groups of companies used for general reporting purposes.

After creating the group and assigning companies to the group, the leading company code must be entered in the VATLECMP – Leading company parameter to use the legal master data like tax number and address for the tax declaration in the Management section.

Other parameters for export paths, etc., need to be defined for the company group in the same way as for a single company.