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

[Geert Janssens]

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