[GNC-dev] Gnucash and the UK's "Making Tax Digital" initiative

Christopher Lam christopher.lck at gmail.com
Sun Dec 2 03:31:08 EST 2018


Hi All

I have reviewed one of pre-gnucash accounting software which I tried 10-15
years ago. VT Cashbook is free, uses double-entry internally, and is a good
solution for UK-based small traders who do not need accruals.

http://www.vtsoftware.co.uk/mtd/index.htm

A VAT return using sample data (sales = 300 + 20 VAT; purchases = 150+30
VAT) produces the following snippet.
[image: image.png]

So, gnucash may be used to store data, and the "Income&GST Statement"
report to produce numbers, which are then sent to tax office by the
bridging software. A small list of such software is maintained in the link
above. These numbers can be produced using "Income & GST Statement" as long
as the accounts are set up correctly. That's all it takes for the technical
aspects to work.

Chris

On Tue, 20 Nov 2018 at 16:52, Geert Janssens <geert.gnucash at kobaltwit.be>
wrote:

> Op dinsdag 20 november 2018 00:30:55 CET schreef Graham Leggett:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I just learned with some shock that the UK wants to force SMEs to submit
> VAT
> > returns “via external software packages” by 1 April 2019, and presents a
> > list of some 150 packages to choose from. If you’re lucky enough to
> already
> > be using one of those packages, great. If you’re not, you’re facing some
> > disruption.
> >
> > Gnucash is not on the list (that I could see).
> >
> > We are not in a position to re-engineer our accounts, but we are in a
> > position to submit patches to Gnucash.
> >
> > This email is exploratory - is anyone on the gnucash dev list interested
> in
> > the UK “Making Tax Digital” initiative, with the aim of getting Gnucash
> “on
> > the list” of approved software? Has anyone done any work in this area?
> >
> > I am still looking for concrete information on the protocols being used,
> if
> > anyone has information on that it would be useful too.
>
> Hi Graham,
>
> The topic has come up a few times in the past. But as far as I know noone
> is
> currently working on this.
>
> You are certainly welcome to send in patches. However I seem to remember
> from
> past discussions GnuCash stands a very small chance of getting accepted as
> it's sources are freely available. That means everybody could build their
> own
> version of gnucash with possibly important details altered. And it's not
> clear
> how to handle this or whether the government will accept this.
>
> So perhaps the first step is to figure out whether the effort is worth
> pursuing by researching the restrictions.
>
> If it turns out there is a practical way to support UK's digital VAT
> system
> from within GnuCash I'll gladly accept good patches to implement them on
> condition the author is also willing to support this feature long-term.
>
> Best of luck,
>
> Geert
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-devel mailing list
> gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
>
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