[GNC] Tax report options (flywire)

[Alex Aycinena]

On Wed, May 17, 2023 at 9:00 AM <gnucash-user-request at gnucash.org> wrote:

>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: flywire <flywire0 at gmail.com>
> To: Gnucash Users <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Wed, 17 May 2023 17:17:45 +1000
> Subject: Re: [GNC] Tax report options
> https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2023-May/107018.html
> flywire wrote:
>
> > It is a spreadsheet process to add share/franking credits to etf/franking
> > credits (Distribution:13Q) and similar for capital gains
> > (Distribution:18H:18A) since the components are the same tax item. Any
> > thoughts of how I could sum them in reports from different account trees?
> >
>
> lol In the heat of the moment preparing tax I'd never thought of just
> transferring the total to the main account for that item.
>
> https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2023-May/107020.html
> flywire wrote:
>
> > ...there are 13 annual returns
> >
>
> To be clear, the items on the return map to different tax codes, eg
> franking credits is 13Q on a personal return and 8D on a trust return. I'd
> expect a table would need to be maintained for each return type. Australian
> codes hardly change over time which likely means there would be no active
> maintenance.
>
> Is it as simple as just using a unique tax code as account code and then
> reporting by account code? (Assume one return type.)
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
Some questions have been asked about  Tax Report Options in the past couple
of weeks. I have been away and not able to respond or make comments. Let me
make these points, which may not necessarily apply to this thread, but to
others (sorry):

- The Tax Report Options and associated US Income Tax Report are only
intended to be used for US Income Taxes.

- Some time ago, someone in Germany used the US version and made
adjustments for use in Germany; I'm not familiar with that and don't know
if it works and is being maintained.

- Initially it was intended primarily to generate a file that could be
uploaded to Income Tax Preparation software (and a report was sort of
secondary) and so a key element of the design was the use of TXF codes that
the Tax software could understand; the specification for those codes was
abandoned some time ago so the ability to expand the system is not there
unless we invented our own new TXF code (ugh!).

- That is why there is nothing for Form 1116.

- If someone wanted to do what was done for Germany for another
jurisdiction, they would have to deal with this TXF issue; I certainly
don't recommend trying it.

- The US version could/should be re-written to not depend on TXF codes but
this would not be trivial.

- One can use the 'No Tax code' tag to include accounts on the US Income
Tax Report, just not sorted by Form/Schedule; you could use the account
name and/or description for that purpose for those accounts to give you
totals (example: for Form 1116).

- The system assumes that each 'book' (i.e., gnucash file) is for one
reporting entity (individual, partnership, corporation, etc.) and that one
file is not used to track the accounts of more than one tax
reporting entity.

- You can certainly use your account structure design and other available
reports to get your tax information without using this system; in fact, if
you use this system, you have to carefully design your account structure
and do careful data entry to get the report to be useful.

Alex