German VAT in GNU Cash

[Elizabeth Dodd]

On Tue, 14 Oct 2008, Guido Bockamp wrote:
> Hey list,
>
>    there is a spicial rule in German VAT(turnover tax) taxation
> concerning small and mid-size businesses called "ist-besteuerung" (i.e.:
> is taxation, because you tax what you get not what you should get). It
> says that these do not have to pay VAT to the authorities (normally this
> happens once a monath) until a bill is payed. So a bill *does not*
> affect net income until payment.
>
> When posting in GNU Cash I get it the other way around (i.e. the VAT
> account is filled, upon issuing the bill not upon payment). Is there a
> way to do this "is taxation" in GNU Cash?
>
>
> --Guido

In English your "ist-besteuerung" is called "cash accounting"
and the way Gnucash calculates is called "accrual accounting"

Either way can be the case in Australia - the tax office decides which way you 
will pay.

I allow gnucash to do my tax its way even though I am 'cash' accounting. My 
income that is followed through gnucash is not enough to worry about the tax 
position.

I could devise a complex scheme for making accounts and checking in another 
account which are actually paid, and then counting out the tax for the tax 
man.
someone may have already done so, it wouldn't be impossible.