I want to track sales tax, but I also want the cost of an item to include sales tax - how?

[Maf. King]

On Thursday 30 October 2008 21:09:15 liz dodd wrote:
> On Thursday 30 October 2008 7:01:47 pm jgombos wrote:
> > I'm interested in knowing how much VAT I pay, so I created
> > Expense:Tax:VAT, and every transaction becomes a split transaction.  When
> > I look at other expense categories, like Expenses:Food for example I see
> > amounts less the tax.
>
> If you are "interested" then you export the data and use another tool eg a
> spreadsheet or your fingers to calculate.
> If you have to report tax then you count it in your gnucash files with
> split entries.
>
> > Suppose I want to know the total food expenses including VAT.  I can't
> > simply add the food balance to the VAT balance, because other purchases
> > cause VAT expenses as well.  How can I accomplish this, without creating
> > a separate VAT subaccount for every expense account?
>
> (total food expenses) + (VAT rate)
> so if VAT is 17.50%
> TFE + 17.5% = actual expended funds.
>
>

Hi,

that will only work if all the items in TFE are subject to VAT at the same 
rate, which isn't true in the UK, at least.  But it is the best method I can 
think of, as long as you are only looking for an indication of how the total 
VAT would split amongst your expense accounts (categories)

HTH,
Maf.