Ideas for input VAT

[Klaus Ridder]

As I have worked very intensively with gnucash now (I didn't make anything
else for the last 2 days) I have collected some ideas for gnucash. I decided
to start a new mail for different topics, I hope this is the way this is
wanted on this list.

Ideas for input VAT (german: "Vorsteuer")

The Problem with input VAT is the following:
For all business transactions, 16% go the tax office (german: "Finanzamt").
I now did the following: I created two Accounts: "P" for Private and "B" for
business-related expenses. At the end of the year I will print out all "B"
accounts, take my calculator, calculate "/1,16" and write it on a list.
The 7% Accounts I calculate "/1,07" and also put in on a list.
the problem is now: I bought a copy maching privately for business (=no
tax). I now created a new account "B-NoTax" where I will put these machine.
However, I cannot put these copy maschine under "B:Machines" where it
belongs.

The best solution would now be if I could assign a TAX value to every
transaction, which have been predefined: "S" for "standard of this account",
"N" for "normal" and "R" for reduced", "0" for "no tax".
Default is "S", but you can change this in every transaction.
This would be much better than Inutit Quicken does it, as they make a split
for every tax booking.

Than you need a flag in every account: "relevant for input VAT" (input VAT =
"Vorsteuer", the tax you get back from the tax office).
At the end of the year I simply click on "make input tax report", and he
shows all transactions of the accounts "relevant for input tax" which have a
input TAX set:

Transaction               Net         %         Tax          Brutto
Bought Something          EUR 100.-   16%       EUR 16.-     EUR 116.-

This would save a lok of work, and with just these features, gnucash would
be perfect for business!

In this context, another feature wold be perfect, which won't be too hard to
implement if this is already done for the euro:
As I proposed in my "EURO" posting to switch the views between EUR and DM,
if youd be also great to switch the views between net and brutto value (the
brutto value is the one saved, the net value is brutto/(1+taxset), e.g. EUR
116 /1,16 = 100 EUR.

The case is that I (and all business people!) have a lot of transactions
with net values which look like:

Product 1:        EUR 10,-
Product 2:        EUR 20,-

16% Tax:          EUR 4,80
SUM:              EUR 34,80

Now you want to book Procudts 1 and 2 to different expense accounts. At the
moment, I take my calculator (at least if the values aren't that round):
"10*1,16=11,60", and put "11,60" into the split field.
It would be easier to switch to "net view": When I now enter "10", gnucash
automatically puts "11,60" into the database. And when I switch back to
"brutto" view, he will also display EUR 11,60.

So I could hat two buttons "EUR / DM" and "NET / BRUTTO" to switch between 4
views (EUR-net, DM-brutto, DM-netto, EUR-brutto).
The database only stores EUR-brutto (just as now), but enables me to view it
different ways - and - most important - enter it different ways. This would
it also make easier to book EUR-bills in 2001 (without using a calculator in
the background!)

Regards,
Klaus Ridder