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Folks, Like some others I have earnings (by paid employment), my own company (with tax and VAT accounts), commission payment work, and pensions. I keep all corporate accounts for self and for a charity where I act as treasurer on QuickBooks Pro (in Windows - the only windows program I really need or use deliberately)as it records all back years and can do analysis, but even it is not fully acceptable to Courts or Inland Revenue or VAT man ,and unlike GnuCash it handles VAT correctly - main reason I use it. I have searched many other programs those named and others and even the most useful jEditLazy8 (java) accounts which handles VAT correctly; none give file transfer easily or over large files. No computer record is acceptable to tax folk, as electronic records can be 're-written' - I have had 3 years of this with investigation, with result I was ok, I had paper records to prove computer systems only 'recorded' actions, so paper signed or dated is only way out of tax investigation, get a paper copy of your bank accounts or else! Note the 6 years records legislation means actual 7 years calendar or corporate years as they must have day before year 6th April in start year plus 6 years to 5th April finish year plus current year so you need to keep 7 years actual records. For cash in cash out personal records any of these programs is ok, but once tax man is involved make sure you have signed paper copies and scan to computer and keep inside a good double entry system of any kind, but back up or transfer files are specific to program and accept that. Then export all files to another spreadsheet program as ultimate standby you can print off if accounts program crashes. I use jEdit Lazy 8 as backup to QuickBooks by individual entry and all records to OpenOffice spreadsheet monthly. PS If anyone can show me how to get GnuCash to handle VAT correctly, I will be most greatfull. Small chart of accounts and sample file ? PS I gave up Quicken some years ago. Regards Eion MacDonald Unencrypted electronic mail is not secure and may not be authentic. If you have any doubts as to the contents please telephone to confirm. James Fidell wrote: > Neil Williams wrote: > >> in fact if (like me) you end up >> facing a tax review, digital documents are not likely to be acceptable. >> I had to photocopy 3 years of bank and credit card statements, >> surrender the *originals* and get them back when the review was >> complete. This isn't a minor problem. ;-) > > Especially when, in my case, I don't receive any paper statements for > quite a number of accounts (nor bills, come to that). I've had credit > cards (and Etrade accounts, come to think of it) where paper statements > never exist and are never intended to exist. > >> I would recommend that you reconsider - to the best of my knowledge, >> digital records are next to useless for 'official' (government/tax) >> purposes. The exception is a digital copy of your submitted tax return >> because the format of that file is fixed and acknowledged. There is no >> such acceptance of QIF, Quicken, GnuCash, SAGE or anything else. >> Government may appear stupid but there are limits. > > They might *want* paper "originals" for the purposes of an > investigation. Whether they could insist is another matter. I wonder > if it's been tested in court? Could be an interesting question -- if > "records" are deemed to mean hard copy, then I don't need to worry about > keeping my banking records, because there aren't any :) > > James > -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html