Automatically splitting incoming money?

[Robert Graham Merkel]

Dave Peticolas writes:
 >  writes:
 > > On Wed, Oct 11, 2000 at 09:44:20AM +1100, Robert Graham Merkel wrote:
 > > > That's correct.  What I (and presumably others) will want to be able
 > > > to do, is have the correct GST calculated when a transaction is made,
 > > > and placed in that GST account.  
 > > 
 > > So GST sounds basically identical to what's just called "sales tax" in
 > > the US.  It might make sense to have a "taxable purchase" accelerator
 > > of some kind that will add a split for a preference-settable tax rate
 > > and a preference-settable tax account on the transaction; you enter
 > > the total purchase amount (price + GST) and it computes the GST; there
 > > should probably be a settable rate field, with the default being the
 > > preference value.
 > 
 > I'm definitely not an expert on VAT or GST taxes, but I don't think
 > they are quite the same thing as a sales tax for one reason: sales
 > taxes are the responsibility of the merchant, while it sounds like the
 > GST is the responsibility of the consumer. So the total you get on
 > your receipt in the US includes the tax, while in Australia it does
 > not. Is that correct?

It does include the tax.  However, it's a bit of a pain to explicitly
add a third split each time - it would be rather nice if the GST split
was automatically generated, even if you type in the actual numbers
manually.

Another difference that you might not be aware of is the
business-to-business component of the tax.  If you are purchasing
supplies for your business, you pay the GST on your supplies, and then
the GST paid to the government is the net of (GST payable on sales -
GST already paid on supplies) - hence the need to
track it explicitly.  For the purposes of this discussion, "business"
includes sole traders and even voluntary organisations such as
churches, clubs and the like - the kind of people likely to use GnuCash.
As I understand it, at least some US sales taxes are only
charged on sales to consumers.

So, while it's not necessary for wage earners to explicitly track
GST, anybody involved in even the most trivial business must do so,
and assistance in that is a very important feature in even the
simplest cashbook software used in a jurisdiction with a GST/VAT.

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Robert Merkel	                           rgmerk@mira.net

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