AW: 2.3.15/tax package: basic questions

[Jannick Asmus]

Alex,

J. Alex Aycinena wrote:

[snip]

> Jannick,
>
> The way tax codes are assigned to accounts is now a bit clumsy (e.g.,
> one at a time, or only one to several accounts at a time) and there is
> an open bug for an enhancement here that I would like to tackle at
> some point but there are other things I would prefer to do first.

Sure, non problem. I would sort of dream of assigning tax codes to 
account by importing a table with account numbers and tax information - 
something like that.

> The work I did for US taxes could be used a base for improved German
> tax reporting

which was very much work as I could see in the files

> but someone would have to step up who was familiar with
> the German tax law to do substantial work to make that happen. I would
> be happy to work with that person to assist but obviously can't do
> anything myself from lack of knowledge (as well as lack of personal
> applicability).

I think Germans should assist here to gather the needed information 
where I could contribute. I think the informationen should be available 
as coded in the files txf.scm and txf-help.scm.

> It should be noted that it is not just a substantial
> one-time effort but also implies a commitment to stay with it over
> time to keep the information current on a timely basis as tax laws and
> filing requirements change. And the changes need to be made available
> to users on a timely basis and we really don't have a mechanism for
> doing that in gnucash

I strongly agree

> - our recent release cycle record hasn't exactly
> been one of 'often and frequently'. We don't have another mechanism to
> update reference data like is in 'txf.scm' or 'txf-de_DE.scm'.

... and the help files, too, which must be constistent with txf.scm.

> I have
> updated the US data to 2009 but no one will be able to use it until
> 2.4 is released and by then it will be stale information; people will
> want 2010 information but I can't update the data until early 2011
> (because it is not available until then) and people will want it well
> before April 15, 2011. So ideally a small release in mid- to
> late-January will provide that but it's a rather clumsy mechanism.

For German tax reports I could think of a two step approach providing a 
VAT report first (which has to be provided to the German tax authorities 
on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis) and then the (yearly) income 
tax report as a second step. Here in Germany we are interested for 
having the latest information for the income taxes till end of April, 
but for VAT from end of January of course.

> It
> would be better if there were an 'Update' button that would fetch the
> data from a central server.

Sounds like heaven.

> Apart from that, I have reservations about the way the US Tax
> Reporting is implemented and the locale-based approach that makes it
> an either-or situation for a user (e.g, US taxes or German taxes, not
> both). The system should be changed so that if someone steps up and
> provides tax information capabilities for a given tax authority, a
> user can select none, one, or any of what may be available, as their
> situation warrants, to apply to a given set of books. After all, while
> most users will only have one national tax authority to deal with,
> some people have more than one and then there is the issue of
> overlapping tax authorities (we have national, state and even city
> income taxes that all may apply here in the US depending on where you
> live). This is another area that I had planned to do some work in in
> the future.

I think the same problem applies if VAT report and income tax statement 
should be provided if I understand you correctly.

Anyway, you contributed a great deal of work for this big step for 
Gnucash in tax reporting!

> Alex

Best wishes,
J.