For UK users: Will gnucash get ready for Making Tax Digital ?

[Alain Williams]

On Tue, Jul 25, 2017 at 05:54:44PM +0100, David Goodenough wrote:

> There is a problem.  They want to assign a secret ID to each piece of software
> and so if you say it is open source they then refuse to allocate an ID as it
> will not be secret.  I have raised this with the cabinet office digital dept,
> and they acknowledge that this effectively bans open source which is against
> official government policy.  They are trying to get this changed.

Especially since the 'secret' ID in most closed source s/ware is not secret at
all, it is just hidden - a string/something constant in a large binary file. I
doubt that it would remain unknown for very long if someone could be bothered to
try to find it. Something that DVD Jon would prob do in his sleep. So I wonder
what the real point of it is.

It cannot be a data validation issue - I don't think that even HMRC are stupid
enough to assume that because the file comes from a 'trusted' program that it is
thus OK. I think that it is more compliance, they have, for whatever reason,
decided that we must all use an accounts program and want to enforce it.

-- 
Alain Williams
Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer.
+44 (0) 787 668 0256  http://www.phcomp.co.uk/
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