[GNC] How to process a purchase made without paying VAT and add it as an investment to be later depreciated

[Geert Janssens]

I don't have access to a gnucash installation currently so I can't verify my suggestion.  But this is how I would handle it.

- create two vat asset accounts. One for the Belgian vat and one for the foreign vat.
- create a tax table (which is all about vat) for your intra-European purchases. This tax table should have 2 entries
1. Belgian vat (typically 21%), assigned to the Belgian vat account
2. Foreign vat, which should be the negative percentage of the Belgian vat  (so typically -21%), assigned to the foreign vat account.

- now you can set tge default vat for your German vendor to this tax table.
When you enter you vendor bill on each line you enter the values without vat and double check the tax table is still the one for intra-European purchaes.
- note the purchase of a laptop should also go to an asset account (investment) so that's what you should enter as account in the entry (an entry is one line on your bill)

- after posting this bill I believe it should create the correct transaction for you, including two vat entries in your assets and the net amount of the lap3in an investment account that can be used for depreciation.
- in addition the bill will be posted for the net amount such you can apply the correct payment.

The only small detail I don't remember is whether I have changed the gnucash code already to allow negative percentages in tax tables. I think I have though. 

Geert

Jeremy D <jeremy.defrere at gmail.com> schreef op 12 juli 2018 22:34:43 CEST:
>Hi,
>
>Someone on the #gnucash IRC channel suggested I write this message as I
>have quite a complex issue.
>
>Basically I've made a few purchases the last few months, most of which
>I
>paid without VAT.
>
>Here's a concrete example to help you better understand.
>
>I bought a laptop. This laptop cost € 2016, VAT included. However, as i
>have a VAT number, I paid only € 1694,12.
>
>A few prerequisites:
>
>
>   - My accountant wants me to include foreign VAT as an asset and also
>include Belgian VAT as an asset. He calls that a "null operation" but
>it's
>   necessary, he says.
>   - Looking at my transaction report, we noticed the balance for each
>   month isn't correct. It should be equal to zero.
>  - This purchase has to be used as an investment (asset account) which
>   can then be depreciated each year.
>
>
>I thought I was able to solve the problem by creating a bill linked to
>the
>vendor (Business\Vendor\New Bill), then posting the bill and processing
>the
>payment - amount without VAT linked to checking account/VAT in the
>separate
>VAT account. Below are screenshots of that:
>
>[Purchase minus German VAT]
>
>
>
>[Purchase minus Belgian VAT]
>
>
>
>But the Liabilities:VAT Sales:Belgium looks totally messed up. To be
>honest, I don't think I know what I'm doing anymore. I've tried many
>things
>already but to no avail...
>
>Thank you in advance for the feedback.
>
>Jeremy

Sent from my smartphone. Please excuse my brevity.