The thirteen boxes of the Cyprus VAT return
Which figure belongs in which box, for a company that supplies services. With the official wording quoted where it decides the answer.
01The form has thirteen boxes, not nine
The return in Tax For All has 13 input boxes. The portal calculates three of them; you fill in the rest. The numbering is binding: a correct figure in the wrong box is still a wrong return, and the total will still add up.
The table below gives every box with its official label and, next to it, what a services-only company puts there. Where it says “always 0”, the box is about goods.
| Box | Official label | Kind | For services |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VAT due on sales and other outputs | Tax | Cyprus sales — plus reverse-charge tax on every service received from abroad |
| 2 | VAT due on acquisitions from other EU Member States | Tax | EU goods only — always 0 |
| 3 | Total VAT due | calculated | Box 1 plus box 2 |
| 4 | VAT reclaimed for purchases and other inputs | Tax | Input VAT — plus the reverse-charge credit |
| 5 | Net VAT to be paid or reclaimed | calculated | Box 3 minus box 4, may be negative |
| 6 | Total value of sales and other outputs | Net | Your own sales — plus services received from abroad |
| 7 | Total value of purchases and other inputs | Net | All purchases — plus services received from abroad |
| 8A | Supply of goods and related services to other MS | Net | Goods — always 0 |
| 8B | Services supplied to other Member States | Net | EU B2B under the reverse charge |
| 9 | Outputs on zero-rated supplies | Net | Genuine zero rates — 0 for services only |
| 10 | Out of scope sales, with right of deduction | Net | Non-EU sales under article 21(2) |
| 11A | Acquisitions of goods and related services from other MS | Net | Goods — always 0 |
| 11B | All services receiving | Net | Services received — from the EU only, see below |
02The costliest mistake: box 11B is EU only
Box 11B is labelled “All services receiving”, which reads like every service you received. The help text says otherwise:
„services received from taxable persons registered in other Member States“
Boxes 1, 4, 6 and 7 are not limited that way. They speak of abroad in general:
„the services you have received from abroad“
An invoice from the United States goes into boxes 1, 4, 6 and 7 — but not 11B. An invoice from Germany goes into 1, 4, 6, 7 and 11B.
Fill 11B as “everything from abroad” and you overstate it every quarter. The tax boxes still balance — which is why neither your arithmetic nor your payment will reveal it.
03Box 11B also sits inside boxes 6 and 7
A service received from abroad counts as a supply to yourself, so it appears on both sides of the return. The help text says so:
„you have already included this amount in boxes 6 and 7“
Build box 6 as “the total of my sales invoices” and you understate it every quarter.
04Input VAT follows the invoice date, not the payment date
„in order to include this amount, you must have a tax invoice with a date that falls within this tax period“
That settles the tax point for a purchase invoice: the date on the invoice. Not the day you paid it, and not the day it reached you.
An invoice that surfaces two quarters late therefore belongs in an amendment to the old quarter, not in the current one.
05Article 11A is not box 11A
The help texts refer to articles 11A, 11B and 11C. Those are Cyprus rules on the domestic reverse charge in particular sectors — construction, scrap metal, certain electronics. They have nothing to do with the boxes of the same name.
For services received from abroad, the relevant provision is article 11, without a letter.
06Five checks before you submit
- Box 3 is box 1 plus box 2.
- Box 5 is box 3 minus box 4 — a negative result is allowed and means a refund.
- Box 6 is at least 8A plus 8B plus 9 plus 10 plus 11B.
- Box 7 is at least 11A plus 11B.
- Box 8B equals the sum of the VIES amounts for the three months of the quarter.
The last check is the one an authority can run by machine: the return and the three VIES statements describe the same supplies. If they disagree, one of them is wrong.
The figures on this page
Every figure with its source and the day we last checked it there. What we cannot evidence appears as a gap, not as a number.
| What | Value | Source | Checked on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input boxes on the VAT return | 13 | Tax For All, form version “VAT returns for periods from January 2012” | 2026-08-27 |
What this page is built from
- The “Step 3: Fill in your return” form in Tax For All, form version “VAT returns for periods from January 2012” — read off box by box.
- The official help text of all thirteen boxes, captured verbatim.
This text is orientation, not tax advice. What applies to your company is for your accountant to decide.