Never miss a VAT deadline: how VatMainder's reminders work

A late VAT return in Finland costs €3 a day in penalties, even when there’s nothing to pay. VatMainder works out every due date from your country and filing period, and reminds you in good time. All reminders are free, and all of them are on from the start.

Before every VAT return

For every return you haven’t filed, VatMainder reminds you 14, 7 and 2 days before the due date, and on the day itself, at 9:00. For example:

August VAT return due in 7 days
About €214.63 to pay by 12 Oct. Late filing adds a penalty fee.

When you’ll get money back instead, it says how much you can claim. If the period hasn’t ended yet, the reminder tells you to keep adding receipts until it does. The morning after a period ends, a notification says the statement is ready, with the amount and the due date.

The next periods’ reminders are scheduled ahead too, so they arrive even if you haven’t opened the app in a while. In the app, each reminder has File now and Remind me tomorrow.

When VAT starts to pile up

Two unfiled returns are easy to forget and painful to pay together. When two or more returns are unfiled and they add up to €500 or more, VatMainder warns you. For example:

VAT is piling up
About €640 to pay across 2 unfiled returns.

It shows in the app straight away and on your phone at most once a month. Home also shows how many returns are unfiled and when the next one is due. For a return with nothing in it, it reminds you that a nil return only takes a couple of minutes, and it still has to be filed.

Filed now, paying later

When you mark a return as filed, you can choose Will pay later (remind me). VatMainder then reminds you to pay 2 days before the due date and on the day.

More reminders

• Income tax return: 30 and 7 days before it’s due, and on the day. In Finland that’s the business tax return (Form 5).
• Set money aside: on the 1st of each month, how much to put away for this year’s income tax.
• Bills and clients: bills you have to pay, 2 days before they’re due; and a nudge the morning after a client’s invoice was due and still isn’t marked paid.
• Backups: a reminder 30 days after your last backup, or after 20 new invoices, whichever comes first.

Daily updates, if you want them

A morning note on what’s coming up, an evening summary of the day’s sales and receipts, a weekly summary on Sunday and a monthly one on the 1st. On Android they have their own channel, so you can turn them off without losing a single deadline. Each kind of notification can be switched off in Profile → Notifications.

No server involved

Every reminder is scheduled on your phone. VatMainder has no server and no push service, so it never needs your data to remind you. The schedule is rebuilt whenever the figures change.