HST remittance formula

[Derek Atkins]

There is a C function that implements the balance-as-of-date, but there
isn't a hook to get it called from the SX.  In particular you would need
more information and changes to the SX interface to make it work:

1) You would need some way to input the account in question in the SX, but
  1a) You would want to provide a nice UI for the user, while
  1b) storing the account GUID in the SX itself
2) You would need to augment the SX runner to determine the appropriate
date to supply to the C API

Unfortunately it's not as simple as "make the API available from scheme"

-derek

On Tue, July 22, 2014 2:26 pm, Ron Stone wrote:
> Thanks Derek -
>
> Can I assume that there is a balance-as-of-date function but it is not in
> scope from the interface - or does it simply not exist? If it does, could
> this calculation be done as a callable function added to fin.scm?
>
> Ron
>
>
> On Jul 22, 2014, at 12:25 PM, Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Alas, I don't think this would be doable from the SX interface because
>> you're missing one key function:  "balance-as-of-date()", which you
>> would need in order to compute the amounts you need.  :(
>>
>> So I don't think it would fit into SXes.
>>
>> Now, you may be able to write a "report" that would compute it for you
>> and even add the necessary transactions for you.  For example, you could
>> look at the "Close Books" feature as a base for something that looks at
>> balances, does something with them, and creates a transaction as a
>> result.  Obviously the meat of the feature would need to be changed for
>> you.
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>>
>> -derek
>>
>> Ron Stone <ronstone at ncf.ca> writes:
>>
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> First - I am fairly new to GnuCash and, having heard about it for
>>> years, wish I’d started sooner. It is a robust app and my hat is off
>>> to everyone who has contributed.
>>>
>>> My question is about Canadian HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) - a
>>> combination of provincial sales tax and federal GST collected and
>>> administered together in some provinces.
>>>
>>> Small businesses can elect to use a ‘simple method’ for calculating
>>> the HST they need to remit at the end of each period (in my case every
>>> quarter). Instead of tracking every sale and every purchase to come up
>>> with a number, they can remit a percentage based on total sales.
>>> For example, in Ontario HST is 13%. The quick method might require
>>> that I remit 7.5% of total sales. For businesses such as consultants
>>> who do not have a lot of purchases, it means you actually keep some of
>>> the HST (which becomes taxable income).
>>>
>>> The 7.5% above was just a number to illustrate, but there is a
>>> wrinkle. For most businesses (mine at least), the percentage you remit
>>> is lower on the first $30,000 and then jumps on the rest of your
>>> income for the year. Say, >=30k = 7.5%, and <$30k=8.5.
>>>
>>> My question is if a formula could be written for a scheduled
>>> transaction to calculate what I owe at the end of each quarter and
>>> what I’ll have to track as income on my business taxes (the amount
>>> from the HST collected that I remit and the amount that I keep). I
>>> have not seen any examples of querying account data from a script, so
>>> I’m not sure if it is doable. You would need to know how much you have
>>> sold in the past quarter and how much of that is above/below the $30k
>>> threshold.
>>>
>>> I am using 2.6.3.
>>>
>>> If it is doable, and anyone cares to lend their expertise, it may help
>>> document some powerful features of Gnucash.
>>>
>>> Many thanks,
>>> Ron
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
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>>>
>>
>> --
>>       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
>
>


-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant