[GNC] Generating Yearly Figures for Accountant/Tax Return (UK)

[Doug]

As an aside, tracking vehicle costs will become harder when one plugs in at 
home (EV) & wants to be re-imbursed. The issue is the tax collectors need an 
audit trail. Here in Australia it seems it might be easier to merely claim 
Kms (that the tax office has a standard Km rate for). Does not affect me,
being retired, so nothing to claim!
 For people who do need to track the energy into a vehicle, there is a way 
to track it if they are using a fixed charger, & it is OCPP compliant. 
(Which means there is an external controller monitoring & managing the 
charger) It is possible to generate a report of charging sessions. The 
managing computer may be your own Home Assistant home management system 
for instance or an external Broker who manages the controller.
 This will get even more difficult when the vehicle charging is 
bi-directional, & one could for instance sell power from the vehicle 
between 6Pm & 8Pm, then charge from 10Pm until the next morning!
 Good luck trying to track & manage that!


On Mon, 12 May 2025 10:32:41 -0400
Michael or Penny Novack via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:

> > I see a problem with the approach taken by the accountant. For example
> > you mention 'petrol'. There are a variety of ways to fuel a car,
> > petrol, diesel, electricity, hydrogen are known to me.
> > Once your accountant asks for 'petrol' then the system is blinded to
> > other potential business costs.  
> 
> Or LPG, ethanol, etc. But THAT brings us to the question "what's in a 
> name?" YES "vehicle fuel" would be a better name for the account, but 
> remember gnucash (or any other accounting program or even old pen and 
> ink on paper) would be agnostic as to what is going into the account. It 
> is OUR human understanding of the meaning of "petrol" that matters, the 
> computer has no such knowledge.
> 
> In other words, OK as long as the accountant understands "petrol" as 
> simply short for "petrol or any other vehicle fuel". ONLY if thee is 
> some accounting reason to differentiate (say different taxes/rebates) 
> would sub accounts for other fuel types be needed.
> 
> Michael D Novack
> 
> 
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