UK Corporation Tax using python bindings

[John Ralls]

> On Apr 13, 2017, at 3:31 AM, Richard Crozier via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
> 
> Dear List,
> 
> I have recently started using gnucash for my small consultancy company business accounts. As I understand it there is no way to directly calculate UK corporation tax in gnucash, and am interested in using the python bindings to do this. I would like to get the developers thoughts on this.
> 
> The way I imagine it working is using the Notes field of an expense account and the notes fields for individual transactions to mark whether expenses are tax deductible or not (or what percentage). How I imagine this working:
> 
> For an expense account have a code written in the notes like UKCT:Deductible that means in general all values in this expense account are 100% deductible expenses for UK Corporation Tax calculation.
> 
> For each transaction, in the notes field (I mean what you see when you do View->Double Line) allow this to be overridden with a similar code like UKCT:<%deductible> where <%deductible> would be a number, e.g. UKCT:50 for 50% or UKCT:0 for not at all etc.
> 
> The transaction level code would override the account level codes for that transaction if present.
> 
> So my questions are:
> 
> In python will I be able to access this information? The Notes fields for the accounts and transactions I mean.
> 
> In general what do you think of this approach?
> 
> I'd be happy to share any code I create, for review if nothing else.
> 
> By the way, I'm subscribed to the list so I can post, but am not receiving list emails (to many mailing lists already), so please copy me into replies too.

Yes, you can access all of the fields in Account, Transaction, and Split with the Python bindings. It sounds to me like you might find it better to use the Split Action or Memo fields rather than the Transaction Note field since it seems that the information you want to track will be account-specific.

I'd think that one would be simpler create separate account hierarchies for deductible and non-deductible expenses, as in Expenses:Deductible:... and Expenses:Ordinary:... 
and to split the transaction between the two when an expense is partly deductible. I'm not at all familiar with UK tax law, though. Are there a lot of expenses that are partly deductible?

Regards,
John Ralls