Accounting question

[Buddha Buck]

It is an accounting question, but I'll put in my 2 cents anyway.

Either method will result in no change to your balance sheet accounts, and
no change to the bottom line on your income (profit and loss) statement.
Overall, the end result is basically the same. In the end, the result of
the purchase and refund should be no change in your overall status. Since
income and expense accounts are, in a sense, ephemeral, in the long run it
isn't necessarily important which way you go.

But... what questions are you asking of your accounting system?

Are you asking "What income do I have to pay tax on?"? If so, then you
should consider how this purchase/rebate would affect that. The
purchase-rebate scenario is most likely tax neutral in your jurisdiction
(consult an accountant competent to practice in your location), but it may
not be if, say, you deducted the purchase from your taxes one year, and
received the rebate the next year.

Are you asking "Am I within my household item budget for this time-frame?"
If so, you should consider how this purchase/rebate would affect that.

And so on, for other questions.

I don't know (and don't want to know) the full details of your situation,
but unless there were some good reason otherwise, personally I'd treat the
rebate as a credit to the expense.

On Sun, Jun 26, 2016 at 6:27 PM Ruth Morley <morley.ruth at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think this is an accounting question rather than a gnucash question but
> here goes.
>  ordered a household item which I then returned. The original purchase went
> into Expenses:Household and then I got a rebate.
> Now should I put the rebate amount into the expenses:household or should I
> set up a new income category which is for instance Income:Rebates.
> I think the former would make more sense to me but may not be correct.
> Ideas??
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