On Oct 27, 2013, at 11:13 AM, Mike or Penny Novack <stepbystepf...@mtdata.com> wrote:
> 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. California is similar in what's taxed, except that all clothing is. But to compensate in complexity, California has local-option sales taxes where cities and counties get to add on up to 1% each in 0.25% increments, so the tax is different from one city to the next. Regards, John Ralls _______________________________________________ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
