[GNC] UK VAT and "Making Tax Digital"

[David Cousens]

Chris,

I am taking a closer look at the ATO's direct lodgement API which is a
common business reporting protocol across a number of government agencies as
well as the tax office. At the moment in Australia individuals and sole
traders cannot directly upload their data except through a registered Tax
Agent or BAS(GT) Agent ( separate business providing these services). They
are required to use the online website portal which is a form like web
interface.

Businesses (trusts, partnerships, private and public companies) can either
upload their reports directly or via a Tax/BAS agent This uses a Standard
Business Reporting protocol
(https://www.sbr.gov.au/digital-service-providers) as mentioned above which
uses XBRL (XML business reporting -
https://www.xbrl.org/the-standard/what/specifications/) for messages. (This
seems to be in use in UK,US, Australia and a number of other countries
(https://www.xbrl.org/the-standard/why/who-else-uses-xbrl/) but in what
capacity is not clear. An XBRL taxonomy defines the data elements used in
communicating. These are defined across a range of government services in
Australia by
https://www.taxonomy-collaboration.sbr.gov.au/yeti/resources/yeti-gwt/Yeti.jsp.
Authentication requires an encrypted key (AUSkey) which is issued to
business. This has a set of levels of authorization associated with it which
I have yet to look at closely which individuals acting for a business can be
assigned.

The software development and certification process is well defined
(https://www.sbr.gov.au/digital-service-providers/software-development-steps).
I was hoping that someone had developed a bridging type sodtware as
described in the UK system but as AFAIK most of the authorized software
available are commercial accounting packages
(https://www.sbr.gov.au/australian-taxation-office-ato-browse-form#bas) only
one of which is free. 

The ATO business portal web interface can up load XBRL files formatted in
accordance with the Aus SBR taxonomy for the appropriate submission usually
prepared by your nice expensive commercial software. This should be fairly
simple for a BAS return. It has been close to 15 years since I last had to
submit one but from memory it was only 4-5 fields. In this case there is no
authorization required as you are already logged in securely using the
encrypted key so that hassle is avoided. I remember looking at a UK VAT
return sometime ago and it was almost identical to the BAS return.

The problem from the GnuCash perspective will be dealing the country to
country variations in requirements. The HMRC requirement that the data can
only be uploaded in a few specific formats  seems to be an audit trail type
of requirement of some sort,  but when two of those formats (CSV and XML)
are editable with a text editor this seems a bit of a ridiculous
requirement. They are presuming, I guess, that file creation/modifcation
access dates are not hackable. I know in Linux it is possible to make files
immutable to other than a superuser and presume this is the case for other
OS filesystems as well. But short of encryption and using checksums it is
unlikely one could guarantee a file had not been altered. Cutting and
pasting data into a webform should be equally acceptable provided you keep
the original it was cut and paste from but when it comes to tax authorities
trying to reason why can be headache producing.

I will try and see if I can track down the Australian BAS formatts for a
file submission. A report which produces an XML output in which the XML tags
can be configured for individual requirements may be the way to go to meet
both UK and Aus and other requirements easily. A quick check on Canada
indicates their GST/HST is similar to UK and Aus and I guess most of the EU
will be similar as well but I have no info on the reporting
requirements/mechanisms in other countries at this stage. If XBRL is adopted
widely enough it may eeventually become as simple as loading an appropriate
taxonomy file using the  locale setting - long way off though.

I suspect that before too long most business and even individual  reporting
to government authorities will become  completely electronic around the
world. The next generation may never be aware it was ever done an other way,
let alone by snail mail.

Possibly better to switch this part of the discussion to the  dev forum.

David Cousens



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David Cousens
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