Perhaps totally underestimating the scope of the problem.
For example, in the US there are 50 states, perhaps half of which have a
sales tax. The problem isn't just that the rates would all be different
but also that to what they apply (or not) would be different* and you'd
need in addition a way to waive sales tax (for example, this customer is
a non-profit that has filed a copy their exemption certificate with
you). That's just for ONE country.
For doing this automated, leave to the folks (if any) trying to develop
a "point of sales" system (that would feed an accounting system like
gnucash with the transaction already properly split).
Michael
* You might want an example of complexity? I am in Massachusetts. We
have a sales tax but (in this state) it does not apply to items of
clothing below a certain cost. If I bought a fancy coat for $300 it
would be taxable. If I bought four dress pants at $80 per pair even
though the total for those pair $320 that would not be taxable. If I
went to a supermarket and bought various items of food (for home
consumption), a bottle of laundry soap, and while there from the deli
dept a sandwich to eat while in the store the food isn't taxed, the soap
and the sandwich are.
And proper calculation of sales tax amounts isn't to compute the tax
individually on each item but to total up the taxables and compute the
tax on that (like many states with sales tax the tax is rounded *up* to
the nearest penny so if figured individually would average one cent more
per item rather only rounding up once on the total). But I am far from
certain all states work it that way.
Carsten Rinke wrote:
Hi Frank,
thanks for your comments. As I am not an accountant and also not
familiar with business taxation there are a couple of questions to
your comments - maybe even very basic ones.
First the most general question:
I am not sure if I should read a message like "this is not a good
idea" from your comments, because it is colliding with other already
ongoing work.
My general goal is to have a common framework for taxation that can be
used for all (ok, let's say "most") tax countries and tax types. The
setup shall be adjustable per country.
My hope is that the work already done for Germany can be
combined/merged with this. I volunteer to do the merging but I
probably need some help for that (once I have reached that point).
My question: Do you agree or disagree that my approach can also be
used for your purposes?
Other questions and comments I have inserted below.
Gruss,
Carsten
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