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Re: Add wiki page for Government requirements around the world and possibly build a testsuite from them.



On 22/06/2012 03:59, Chris Travers wrote:


On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 7:09 PM, Peter Dolding <..hidden..> wrote:
Chris Travers <..hidden..>
> The problem which no single business can address as such is the fact
> that all these different jurisdictions  are, well, different.  They
> change their regulations on different schedules, the regulations may
> be somewhat nuanced, and so forth.  This means that this is not a
> problem which is well suited to a single player in the industry to
> solve, and it really requires local voices who know the regulations
> both in theory and practice, and can act as a voice helping the
> community figure out what we need to do to meet the regulatory
> requirements.

This is another reason for having a list.  Australia has a very fixed
schedules.  Tax system changes between june 30 and july1 at midnight.
 No official tax change can be applied at any other time in the year.
Information about proposed changes are released before that and is
basically locked in 2 months before the date so software can change.
Also that gives you 12 months to implement the change fully for
anything other than bas reporting.  Business activity reporting is 1
month for large companies 3 months for medium companies and 12 months
for small companies.  Yes those 3 months reports are all at exactly
the same time.  So small business you have 12 months to implment  mid
range business you have 3 months to implement.    So yes there is a
bias to get large businesses to chip in.   Since they will require it
first.  This should make getting partners that can pay simpler.

Ok, I see two problems with a lot of this.  The first is that while something like sales tax is relatively straight-forward, a lot of things do depend on implementation, and there may be nuance there.  For example, I don't really know what the effect of HST on the question of whether a muffin sold in a coffee shop in Toronto (Ontario, Canada), and if HST hasn't greatly affected the rules there, I wouldn't want to be in charge of making sure my interpretation of the rules were correct.

As I say I don't know what the current state is after HST was implemented, but before then, the tax rate depended on what else the customer bought.  As I understand the previous rules:

If the muffin is not individually wrapped and you buy fewer than six then it is taxable if and only if the subtotal of all prepared foods and beverages is greater than $4 CAD.  On the other hand if it is individually wrapped then it is always taxable unless another prepared food or beverage is purchased and the subtotal is less than $4 CAD.

I see this as a classic example of where someone on the ground really must address the sales tax directly, or at least work with us to do so.  I am not sticking my neck out there interpreting rules like that.
I'm 100% with Chris on this. I think the only way to handle these local issues is for someone local to take on the responsibility. How we operate this is a matter of implementation and will bear future study. I'm sure that Chris and the development team will offer help, in the face of appropriate specifications, but these would be the responsibility of the local representative to produce. Testing would also be the responsibility of the local contact. The local rep in general will be the one who has a vested interest in getting the product working locally.

Nigel