[Advacs-discuss] International flavours.

[Helmut Wollmersdorfer]

David Palmer schrieb:

>>  I do feel it needs its own module; and doing it like that makes the
>>  whole thing more flexible for use in countries which don't have
>>  VAT.-:Unquote.

> Perhaps in this way the different international packages could be 
> defined for downloading.
> Other countries have their own particular quirks, e.g., G.S.T., goods 
> and services tax. The VAT module may well only need renaming for that 
> purpose.

I think, that for most cases a default logic can be used and only a 
table of tax codes needs to be configured.

E.g.
tax.code
tax.percentage
tax.description
tax.expenses-account
tax.earnings-account
tax.valid-from-date
tax.valid-to-date

Sample records:
T10  10%   reduced VAT  2210  3210  1994-01-01  9999-12-31
T20  10%   normal VAT   2220  3220  1994-01-01  9999-12-31

Accounts
ID    Description
2210  VAT from incoming invoices 10%
3210  VAT from outgoing invoices 10%
8010  Earnings 10%                   default-tax.code=T10
7530  Expenses books 10%             default-tax.code=T10
C1234 Customer example

Sample of an outgoing Invoice transaction
Doc-ID/Date/Amount-brutto/debit/credit/Tax-ID
AR4711 2004-08-11 110.00 C1234 8010 T10

This internally generates
AR4711 2004-08-11 100.00 C1234 8010 T10
AR4711 2004-08-11  10.00 C1234 3210 T10

> I note in the project description that the aim is to meet international 
> accounting standards, but does this provide the necessary compliance 
> requirements for acceptance by the multitude of national tax departments 
> for their respective endorsements?

The usual way is, to get a certicate of conformity by a - local - 
chartered accountant. But this is not a duty.

The main things are:
Basics:
- conformance to usual account rules ("good practice")
- technical aspects of archiving and data security

Table of accounts:
There exist sample tables here in AT and DE. They are not mandatory, but 
save time (training of accountants and all involved people). At least 
they support rules of taxation, business law and 
reporting/data-exchange. Import of such nationalised example tables 
should be supported.

Special rules (examples):
AT: export interface for tax-revision (mandatory)
AT: mandatory fields of an invoice (date, addresses, details, VAT-ID, 
TAX-ID, Company-ID ...)
AT: rules for electronic invoices

> Just my take, but I think that this would be the fastest way to gain 
> market acceptance if these respective tax departments were to list the 
> future Advacs package as approved goods, as this is generally the first 
> place accountants look when determining their software requirements.
> I have already emailed the Australian tax dept. re their compliance 
> requirements, but perhaps a little further research might pay dividends 
> with regard to acceptance within the U.S. and other markets?
> Regards,

All this will need local volunteers or sponsors. At least, somebody 
needs to understand the local language and have access to rules and 
laws. For some (most?) countries this information is available in www, 
but needs time to understand if somebody is not a local expert. I 
experienced this yesterday, as I tried to read the GB business-law and 
VAT-law;-)

In the EU a lot of rules are very similar, but details can vary.

Helmut Wollmersdorfer