[GNC] Reporting transactions

Fri May 1 05:21:45 EDT 2020

Ah yes you are right! I didn't think of the case where an employer pays
directly into a SIPP. In that case it is clearly an income. Not in mine.

Conceptually, it might be better thought of as a business expense. The
business is the SIPP and the government encourages investment in the
business by giving tax rebates on allowable business expenses. Payments
into the SIPP are reported in the tax report as expenses rather than as
income. And a SIPP is not like other assets: I can't sell it or trade it,
and there are strict rules limiting when and how much income I can take
from it in retirement. So maybe we should look at the SIPP as its own
independent entity, with income to the SIPP being expenses to our other
assets, just as reported in tax reports.

But that seems a theoretical discussion, and we have a sort of pragmatic
solution that works (even though I have to go outside of GnuCash to
calculate what to put in the tax form)

Thanks again for enlightening comments!

On Thu, 30 Apr 2020 at 16:30, D. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Ah, then yes it's a terminology thing. In my own case, money from my
> income goes directly into the SIPP as a payroll deduction, so I just
> transfer from income into the SIPP. It can just as easily go from an asset
> to another asset.
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> From: Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton <ruaraidh.sh at gmail.com>
> Sent: Thu Apr 30 19:42:46 GMT+05:30 2020
> To: "D." <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>
> Cc: "D. via gnucash-user" <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> Subject: Re: [GNC] Reporting transactions
>
> Sorry David, I didn't mean to imply I prefer the second to the first
> option. I just thought it easier to show by editing one of your versions,
> and happened to pick the second. I could as easily have picked the first.
>
> In my reply I replaced your "Income:Me" with "Assets:my bank account". The
> point is that, when the SIPP is in the same GC file as my other assets, the
> transaction is from one asset (the bank account I used to pay into the
> SIPP) to another asset (my SIPP). It's not from an income account to the
> SIPP, so it can't appear in a report of income.
>
> If I keep the SIPP in a separate dedicated GC file, then no problem: my
> contribution appears in the main GC file as an expense against my bank
> account and as an income in the SIPP GC file. I just wondered if there was
> a way of keeping all assets in one file.
>
> Ruaraidh
>
> On Thu, 30 Apr 2020 at 14:41, D. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > ???
> >
> > Perhaps this is a terminology thing, but aren't you just re-presenting
> the
> > second option I gave originally?
> >
> > Think of it another way: there are two sources for the funding of your
> > SIPP: your contribution, and the government's. How you handle your own
> > contribution depends on your workflow; the government is giving you
> money,
> > so that's an income account. I offered two methods of recording that
> > two-step; yours is a repetition of my second method.
> >
> > I personally use the first, since the two events are inextricably linked
> > (the second never happens without the first).
> >
> > Or am I missing something?
> >
> > David
> >
> >
> > -------- Original Message --------
> > From: Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton <ruaraidh.sh at gmail.com>
> > Sent: Thu Apr 30 17:20:34 GMT+05:30 2020
> > To: "D." <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>
> > Cc: Gnucash Users <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> > Subject: Re: [GNC] Reporting transactions
> >
> > That covers it if the SIPP is in a separate GC file of its own, where my
> > contribution is an income (and an expense from my bank account in the
> main
> > GC file, which I use to fund the contribution).
> >
> > But if it's all in one GC file we have
> >
> > 01-01-2020 SIPP Contribution   Assets:SIPP  £100
> > My contribution          Assets:my bank account          £100
> >
> > 01-01-2020 SIPP Govt Contribution   Assets:SIPP  £25
> > Government contribution Income:GovContrib £25
> >
> > Am I wrong?
> >
> > Ruaraidh
> >
> > On Thu, 30 Apr 2020 at 12:33, D. <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Set up an independent income account for the government contributions:
> > >
> > > Income:GovContrib
> > >
> > > Then add either a split to your contribution for the government,
> > >
> > > 01-01-2020 SIPP Contribution   Assets:SIPP  £125
> > > My contribution          Income:Me          £100
> > > Government contribution Income:GovContrib £25
> > >
> > > or a separate transaction,
> > >
> > > 01-01-2020 SIPP Contribution   Assets:SIPP  £100
> > > My contribution          Income:Me          £100
> > >
> > > 01-01-2020 SIPP Govt Contribution   Assets:SIPP  £25
> > > Government contribution Income:GovContrib £25
> > >
> > > That should cover it, yes?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > -------- Original Message --------
> > > From: Ruaraidh <ruaraidh.sh at gmail.com>
> > > Sent: Thu Apr 30 15:17:04 GMT+05:30 2020
> > > To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > > Subject: [GNC] Reporting transactions
> > >
> > > I have another question related to UK tax reporting obligations.
> > >
> > > In the UK we can have a type of asset called a SIPP (Self-invested
> > Personal
> > > Pension). You pay money into a SIPP with the idea of building up an
> > income
> > > for your retirement. The carrot is, you get a tax rebate. For example
> if
> > > you
> > > pay 100 GBP into the SIPP, the government pays in another 25 GBP.
> > >
> > > For our annual tax reports, we have to report the total added to the
> SIPP
> > > during the tax year: the amount we pay in personally, plus the amount
> > that
> > > the government pays in, i.e. 125 GBP in the above example.
> > >
> > > This is easy to do if I keep the SIPP in a separate GC book. Then all
> > > personal contributions and the Government's additional contributions
> can
> > be
> > > put into the same income account. Easy. What's not so good is that (a)
> I
> > no
> > > longer have an overview of all assets in one book and (b) to do my one
> > tax
> > > report I have to do two separate GC tax reports.
> > >
> > > Is there a better solution? Either something that allows me to keep
> > > everything in one book, or a way that allows reports to query two
> books?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Sent from:
> > http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > gnucash-user mailing list
> > > gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
> > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> > > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see
> > > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information.
> > > -----
> > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>