Canadian GST PST

[Derek Atkins]

Brian Dolbec <brian_dolbec at telus.net> writes:

> On Mon, 2006-13-11 at 05:46 -0500, Brian Goodyear wrote:
>> Hi.  Thanks for responding.  I have set up 4 tax tables:
>> 
>> 6% GST collected linked to LIABILITIES:gst collected
>> 6% GST paid linked to LIABILITIES;gst paid
>> 7.5% PST collected linked to LIABILITIES: pst collected 
>> 7.5% PST paid llinked to LIABILITIES paid
>> 
>> However here in Quebec the PST is added to the subtotal of the ITEM +
>> GST.
>> I could setup a table with the combined amount but it looks like it
>> can only be linked to one account so it would have to be manipulated
>> afterwards. 
>> 
>> The same goes for customers/suppliers.  They can only be linked to one
>> account.
>> Am I missing something?
>> 
>
> I was just snooping around and apparently gnucash is lacking proper
> handling of multiple taxes.  I did figure out a workaround for
> invoicing, Bills entry is the same.

No, it handles multiple taxes just fine.. You just need to enter
them together into a single tax table.  So instead of setting up
FOUR tax tables, you would set up TWO:

  GST/PST Collected:

  6% GST -> L:GST:Collected
  7.5% PST -> L:PST:Collected

  GST/PST Paid:

  6% GST -> L:GST:Paid
  7.5% PST -> L:PST:Paid

Now, these numbers don't handle the fact that you have to pay tax on
tax.   I don't recall which tax get's taxed, but the way to handle that
is to increase the other tax to add the extra.  So, for example, let's
assume you have a $100 bill that get's the 6% GST ($6) and then the 7.5%
PST is on the $100 bill + $6 GST..  So 7.5% of $106 == $7.95.  E.g.,
you can accomplish this by setting the PST to 7.95% instead of 7.5%.

I'll note that 7.95 is also computed by taking PST * (1 + GST), e.g

  NewPST = 7.5 * (1 + 6%)

or

  NewPSG = 7.5 * (1 + 0.06) == 7.95 (%)

Voila, you've now got two tax tables that handle all your PST/GST.

> In the invoice enter each item, selecting taxable/GST, after all items
> are entered, add another item labeled PST Taxable, quantity 1, amount =
> the subtotal you see at the bottom, select the PST tax table.  Then
> enter another item to reverse the subtotal amount, not taxable.  All
> totals will be correct, Taxes will display on the invoice correctly.
> Only the annoyance of having to enter it manually with a partial
> reversal entry.
>
>
> That way it will track taxes properly.

Yeah, but this way is WAY more work than you need to do!

> You might want to submit a feature request to add multiple tax column
> options to the invoicing and bills editors, etc..

Nah, the tax tables already do it.

-derek
-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available