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Re: [LUG] The only Linux User In The Village - not any more !

 

On Sat, 27 Jan 2007 21:25:55 +0000
Eion MacDonald <eionmac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Paul Sutton wrote:
> > Sounds a good plan,  Open office has matrured, and there is gnucash
> > for accounts,

GnuCash isn't suitable for everyone (neither is Quicken) - there are
alternatives.

> To Paul?
> Gnucash and UK VAT as opposed to personal accounts.
> Do you have a VAT enabled GnuCash chart of accounts?

GnuCash is not intended to handle VAT - think about it, VAT is a
specialised, local tax implemented by a minority of the financial
systems worldwide. SALES tax is different.

Unfortunately, the gnucash codebase doesn't have a flexible method of
supporting localised tax tables - there are simply too many and they
change too often. VAT rates haven't altered but the categories and
demarcations between rates change frequently. It is actually very
complex to handle all these changes in an international manner whilst
still retaining accurate records, past and present.

> I have not  got this Linux accounts system yet to do VAT in proper UK
> style

The vast majority of users have no need to track VAT - only
VAT-registered businesses need that. GnuCash is personal with
incomplete support for small business usage - emphasis on small, not
medium-sized i.e. out of the scope of VAT registration. I'm
self-employed, I've run a business for 15 years, I've been a gnucash
developer and I'm still involved in developing free software for
personal and small business accounts - VAT is not even on the horizon.

--

Neil Williams
=============
http://www.data-freedom.org/
http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/

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