Dating US Tax Payments

T. Cabugao tycabugao at earthlink.net
Sun Apr 4 21:17:13 EDT 2004


Allen Ziegenfus wrote:
> Hello everyone.
> 
> I was curious how people handle their tax payments within GnuCash with
> regard to dates. Last year I ended up creating different tax year
> accounts (2002 Taxes, 2003 Taxes) so that 2002 tax payments made in
> January / April 2003 would be categorized as 2002 payments even though
> they  have a 2003 date. However, now it seems a little silly to me to
> continually create these separate tax accounts ad infinitum. Is the
> recommended method to have just one tax account and fudge the dates so
> that 2003 payments made in 2004 will have a 2003 date (e.g., 12/31/03)?
> When I searched the GnuCash site I found some document that described
> that this is what the TXF report does. I'd like to have the reports
> show, within a single year, all the income and the  taxes paid on that 
> income for that year.
> 

Here's how I have set up my accounts:

Asset: Tax Refund

Liability: Taxes Due

Expense: Tax

In Jan-April, once I figure out my tax refund/taxes due, I make an entry 
for Dec 31 (tax year) to either the asset or liability account.

In case of a refund, I debit Asset:Tax Refund and credit my Expenses: 
Tax account for Dec 31st. This lowers my Tax expenses for the tax year, 
and adds to my asset. Once I receive the refund check from the IRS, I 
debit my Checking account and credit my Asset: Tax Refund to complete 
the transaction.

In case of having taxes due for the prior tax year, I credit my 
Liability: Taxes Due account, and debit my Expense: Tax account, with a 
date of Dec. 31st. This increases my Tax expenses for that year and 
increases a liability account that I can zero out once I mail the IRS my 
check.

You can use these Asset and Liability accounts year after year.

Hope that is clear enough.

Ty


More information about the gnucash-user mailing list