Assignigng VAT values to accounts

[Conrad Canterford]

OK, if Quicken is anything to go by, Klaus' suggestion *IS* valid in
Australia. As far as I understand QuickBooks and the way it works from
the misfortune of having to use it, it stores ALL values as the GROSS
value, and has an associated tax code (in my case, GST or GST-free) for
that transaction. I'm assuming it then puts an equivalent amount in some
GST account or some such (I haven't looked so it may just be calculating
this when you do reports?).

Having said that, I do not think that is necessarily the "Right Thing".
In a program that emphasises double-entry principles this *may* be
diluting the integrity (not to mention flexibility depending on how it
is implemented) of our safety checking. Maybe this sort of thing should
be controllable by a user option ("Enable Quicken compatibility") with a
warning dialog that pops up when enabled saying "This will make it
easier to stuff up. Continue?". (Ok, words to that effect, you know what
I mean). I haven't really thought this through and think these issues
need to be discussed more.

Following on from my initial point, I think the GST guidelines in
Australia require that the GST be reported seperately OR that sufficient
information be recorded to allow the exact amount of GST payable on the
transaction to be calculated (hence, it is legal to record (for example)
the total price and the net-GST price as that still permits the exact
GST to be calculated). Recording the gross (inc. tax) price and the tax
percentage does meet those guidelines.
I haven't read the guidelines recently, and wasn't planning on doing so
until implementation became a real probability - I have too much else to
worry about at the moment... sorry!

OK, its late. I've probably been far more verbose than was really
required.

Conrad.
-- 
Conrad Canterford  (conrad@mail.watersprite.com.au)
Water Sprite Pty Ltd   |  Watersprite Pty Ltd:
GPO Box 355,           |  - Australian Tour and Event Management (ATEM)
Canberra, ACT 2601     |  - Ticketing Division.
Mobile: +61 419 122553 |  - Catering Services Division.