VAT on cash sales in restaurant

[Nuara Valsecchi]

thank you.
Yes, I follow the below and I am going to account for the tax on  
revenues as liabilities but I was wondering if gnucash could calculate  
the tax on revenues the same way as it does on expenses when entering  
a bill or on revenues if invoiced (it calculates them automatically  
once give the appropriate tax table).
I guess I enter the revenues in cash in the basic ledger and not  
"invoice" them since they are not invoiced but this way I have to  
calculate VAT for every transaction (well, daily total) on the side  
and not automatically...

regards,
nuara
On 5 Feb 2010, at 21:54, John Edwards wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 1:11 PM, Nuara Valsecchi <nuara.valsecchi at gmail.com 
> > wrote:
> probably an other silly question but thank in advance for your help...
>
> Trying to understand how to calculate the VAT (IVA, BTW...whatever  
> the name in the different countries) for a small business like a  
> restaurant.
> If I write an invoice to a customer the tax (in liability) is  
> calculated automatically and the amount is written in the correct  
> account when posted.
> My wonder though is for the payment received from the customers in  
> the restaurant paying cash. There are 2 different taxes applied (6  
> and 19% depending on food or alcohol) but I am not sure where and  
> how I am supposed to account for the payments.
> Should I write them as Income (i.e. sales)? if yes, is there a way  
> to have the tax calculated directly or would I have to split the  
> transaction and enter them manually???
>
> Sales tax (be it VAT or a consumption tax) that you collect and have  
> to forward to the government is a liability.
>
> Given a 19% VAT, if you collect $119, $100 goes into the appropriate  
> Revenue account, and $19 goes into Liability:VAT owing.
>
> If you're looking for how to calculate it when knowing only the  
> total payable, the usual formula would be VAT = Total / (100+VAT  
> rate) * 100. So, for the 19% scenario the VAT would be the Total /  
> 119 * 100.
>
> You would have to perform that calculation for each separate rate  
> you have. (Have I mentioned how much better visible sales taxes are  
> than hidden ones?)
>
> John
>
> -- 
> John Edwards
> "You can insure against the weather, but you can't insure against  
> incompetence, can you?" - Phil Tufnell