[GNC] UK specific: MTD - Making Tax Digital

[Mark]

> Lots of subquestions in that regard:
> 1. How does HMRC "approve" a bridge for "production" ? And can the code of
> the bridge still
> change after approval without re-approval ?


There is an approval process. Anyone can get credentials on the sandbox
API, but the approval process applies to getting production credentials.
 I'm part-way through the process so I haven't seen it to the end yet.
There are some questionnaires to fill in, and HMRC verify that the API
usage is correct by looking at logs in the sandbox environment.

There are two types of application: "In-house" is used for an enterprise
which wants production access to submit their own VAT records. "Retail" is
used for a developer which creates a VAT product for other people to use.
I'm part-way through a retail  application.

The API reference is public online, but you get access to more detailed
documentation by submitting an application for production credentials.


> Is there a check on the resulting binary or do they
> use some other kind of validation ?
>

No, there is no validation of the binary / code itself.  The HTTP request
must meet what HMRC call the 'Fraud API' which is a bunch of headers
describing various things like the hardware, device ID, local IP/MAC
address, software version, etc. The internal use of these headers is not
defined, but I guess there's some anomaly detection for fraud/abuse
purposes.


> 2. Do you intend to keep your bridge as a separate project, to which
> gnucash can interface ?
> Or would you like the functionality to become part of the gnucash code ?
>
3. Will you provide your integration (in whatever form) in a way that it's
> compatible with the
> GPL code (under which gnucash is released) ?
>

The code I published at github.com/cybermaggedon/gnucash-uk-vat is a
separate bridge which uses the Python API, and licenced under GPL.  I would
be up for getting involved in an development to integrate a capability with
Gnucash if there's enough interest.

Mark.