Sales Taxes & Budget

[jcard21 xxxxxxx]

On Sat, Dec 8, 2012 at 11:08 PM, Phil Davis <phil at coolbluedesigns.com> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I am new to GnuCash, so thanks to everyone that has created this program.
> It seems to be exactly what I need.
>
>
> So, I am trying to figure out how I can do something, that seems a little
> unorthodox:
>
>     I need to keep track of both budget items and sales taxes.
>
> So, let me explain:
>
> First, I need to create and stick to a budget.  You know, a typical budget
> for household items, groceries, mortgage, etc... the normal items that
> people typically create a budget for.
>
> Second, since I live in Texas, we do not have Income Tax.  Since the
> Federal Government allows me to deduct Sales Tax on Schedule A, I need to
> keep track of my sales tax.
>
> The conflict arises in the fact that I don't want a budget for sales tax...
> I create a budget for clothing or groceries or whatever, I don't have set a
> plan to spend $15 in taxes this week... I have a plan to spend $50 on
> clothing, but the government takes some of my money (tax), so I really only
> have 45.45 to spend on clothes (45.45 + 10% sales tax (4.55) = 50.00
> (assuming 10% sales tax, in reality, it is 8.25% most places, occasionally
> only 6.25% depending on the location).  However, I still want to budget 50
> for clothing and then indicate that I spent $50 in clothing of which 4.55
> was sales tax.
>
> The closest I can think of is to create a sub-account for sales tax for
> each expense account, but that would be painful to set up and very painful
> to create a report (or so I think at this point... remember I am new to
> GnuCash)
>
> Alternatively, I can create an account for sales tax, and then only budget
> 45.45 in clothing... but I really don't want to keep track of it that
> way.... what if I find a deal where my sales tax is only 6.25% (instead of
> 8.25%)?  That means I have a little extra to spend.
>
> What I really want is to indicate 50 was spent on clothing, 4.55 of that 50
> was attributed to sales tax. Then, I could check my actual expenses vs the
> budget and keep track of the sales tax so I can report that on my taxes.
>
> Is there any way to do this? or is there a better way?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Phil
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Phil,

You spent $45.xx on clothing; you spent $4.xx on sales tax; for a
total of $50.00.

• Expense:Clothing $45.xx

You did NOT spend $50.00 on clothing.

The $45.xx will go in the Expense:Clothing account.
The $4.xx will be divided between:

• Expense:Taxes:__ Sales Tax (specify the state name)
• Expense:Taxes:__ Sales Tax (specify the county name)
• Exp3ense:Taxes:__ Sales Tax (specify the local name)

In my situation, I pay State and County sales tax (no local), so I
split the sales tax between State and County, according to the
appropriate percentages.

I hope this helps.

PS: For budgeting, leave the sales tax Budget amounts zero.

--
jcard21