[GNC] How to accurately record Use Tax

[Adrien Monteleone]

> On Feb 22, 2020 w8d53, at 9:45 AM, Brandon Captain <caibbor at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I make purchases for which I owe state Use Tax on. It's important for me to
> record the Use Tax liability at the time it becomes a liability, but only
> record it as an expense at the time that I pay it.
> 
> I have several accounts for this, but the important ones are:
> 
> * "Future Expense(A/P):MI Use Tax", a top-level Accounts Payable account.
> * "Expenses:MI Use Tax"
> * "Liabilities:MI Use Tax"
> 
> When I make a purchase that I owe use tax on, I make a split transaction:
> * decrease an asset account by the amount I paid, and increase the expense
> account by the amount I paid (not including the unpaid use tax).
> * increase the "Liabilities:MI Use Tax" and increase "Future
> Expense(A/P):MI Use Tax"
> 
> In the next year when I remit the Use Tax to my state, I create another
> split transaction for the amount I pay in use tax:
> * decrease whatever asset account, and decrease "Liabilities:MI Use Tax"
> * decrease "Future Expense(A/P):MI Use Tax", and increase "Expenses:MI Use
> Tax".
> 
> This method allows me to keep the Use Tax that I pay recorded in the proper
> year - I can't record it as an expense at the time I buy the item, because
> I haven't paid that portion of it yet, and I don't want to have to remember
> that come next tax season.
> 
> I am not using the default "Liabilities:Accounts Payable" account because
> it would negate "Liabilities:MI Use Tax", and would always look like I have
> a zero tax liability which would be incorrect.
> 
> So this setup seems to work, but I'm unsure about the GnuCash documentation
> which says: "Transactions involving an Accounts Payable account should not
> be added, changed or deleted in any way other than by using post/unpost
> bill/invoice/voucher or process payment"
> 
> I don't use the payment system (yet), but why is it such a problem to
> manually enter A/P transactions?

The problem is that the business features can’t *see* your manual transactions. If that isn’t an issue, then there is no problem. But this only applies to the default AP account. Other payable accounts you create should be of type ‘liability’ and you can manually enter stuff there all you want. (there can be only one account of either *type* AP or AR)


> 
> Is it really that important that I use the bill/payment system for these
> transactions? And once I do so, can I safely split them afterward?

You can model your real world transactions either manually or via using the business features, but I’m not sure what you mean by ’split afterward’. Bills and invoices can only be edited if they are not posted. (you can unpost, edit, repost if you like) Payments need to be edited by right-clicking and using ‘Edit payment.’

Any other *change* to *existing* transactions either can’t be done, or shouldn’t be done. But you can make further manual transactions all you want.


Regards,
Adrien