No double entry needed

[Bill Wohler]

Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU> writes:

>> My latest enquiry is:  If I want to keep track of my medical expenses for 
>> my taxes too, would I set up an account Expense: Medical, then when my 
>> insurance company sends me a cheque put it in Assets: Cash?  Are those 
>> the two entries that charge off against each other, or is there another 
>> step here? *sigh* You can tell that I'm not really good at this, I guess . . .
>
> Well, it depends.  Yes, you should have an Expense:Medical account,
> and transfer from cash -> E:M for your medical expenses.  However,
> insurance payments offset those expenses.  I'm not 100% sure how to
> account for that (I would ask an accountant ;)

A simple method is to simply transfer the deposit of the insurance check
from Checking -> E:M. Then, at the end of the year, you can just use the
E:M total as your *unreimbursed* medical expenses (assuming Canadian tax
law is similar to US tax law here).

This gets more complicated if the check arrives in the next year.
Derek's suggestion is more general and covers this, but then you have to
remember to subtract I:R-E from E:M before entering the unreimbursed
expenses in your taxes. (I'd probably use
Income:Reimbursements:Medical.)

--
Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>  http://www.newt.com/wohler/  GnuPG ID:610BD9AD
Maintainer of comp.mail.mh FAQ and MH-E. Vote Libertarian!
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