Poor choice of VAT/GST account setup in the docs?

[Frank H. Ellenberger]

Hello,

from my german view the account setup in e.g.
http://code.gnucash.org/docs/C/gnucash-guide/bus-setupacct.html and
http://code.gnucash.org/docs/C/gnucash-help/busnss-ar-components1.html
is suboptimal.

Imagine the first periode of your business where you spend more money
for your equipement than you earn. Assuming an equal tax rate for buys
and sales you will end up with an negative number in Liabilities:Tax.
You can avoid this by moving "paid tax" under assets as it is in all
german account templates, which I know. OTOH you must run a separate
report to get the total of your current tax state.

So my question: Are there any rules in english speaking countries with
VAT/GST how this must/should/may be handled?

Regards
Frank