What do you use to assist with GST/VAT tax reporting?
Hi,
(This question is probably more relevant for those of you who live in, or have to comply with, a GST/VAT country such as the EU, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India etc.)
Just wondering ... If you are self-employed/freelancer/have-side-income/etc, what do you use to assist you to calculate and/or file your periodic GST/VAT reports?
For example, I'm a freelancer in Australia and I use an accounting app that, among other things, produces quarterly GST reports which I then submit on a government website.
I realise most accounting software can produce such reports. Hence, anyone who uses accounting software or has an accountant has this problem solved. Fair enough.
However, I also suspect that there are a lot of self-employed/freelancer/gig workers who have to do tax/GST/VAT reports but don't use accounting sofware (ie. Quicken/Xero/FreshBooks/etc) nor tax middlemen (ie. Paddle/Avalara/etc). How do they create their tax reports? I wonder what they use? Is it just manual calculation or a customised spreadsheet or something?
- If you are in this situation (and you don't use an invoicing app), what do you use?
Coming at it from a related field ... I know there are lots of invoicing apps (ie. FreshBooks, InvoiceNinja etc.) and invoices have GST/VAT/tax data in them. So maybe some/most invoicing apps also include tax reporting? (I don't use invoicing apps so I wouldn't know.)
-
If you use an invoicing app, which app is it, and does it also include tax reporting? Is the tax reporting adequate for your needs?
-
Finally, if you have special tax reporting needs that are unmet, what are they?
For example, maybe you have some invoices in USD and some invoices in EUR and so you have to do your invoices and/or tax reporting in two different logins/accounts? Or maybe you have SaaS income from EU and also from Canada and so you have to report to multiple country's tax authorities?
The reason I'm asking (besides plain curiousity) is that ... I built a very simplistic accounting app (which I shall not name lest I be accused of self-promotion) for myself and I'm dogfood-ing it (it handles multi currency and can produce tax reports for AU/NZ/CA and partial-EU*) ... but I'm wonder ... whether there's market demand if I pivot the value-proposition/marketing from being a 'simplistic accounting app' to being a 'tax reporting app that also happens to do simple invoicing and simple accounting'.
(*Yes, I spent a lot of time learning about GST/VAT/tax worldwide. It was painful. Ugh.)
The accounting app market is very saturated. The invoicing app market is very saturated. I wonder if there is a market for a 'tax reporting' app, or maybe a specialised niche for a 'multi currency, multi country tax reporting' app?
I wonder.
What do you think?
(I just realised Indie Hackers has polls so I'm added one below)
Anyway, thank you for reading this far. It's a lot of thoughts and questions (and some rambling) from me. Hopefully this will generate some useful discussion. I really appreciate any comments and insights that you have.
Thanks all!
In response, we've developed a specialized GST calculator online that caters to the specific requirements of these countries. Our tool simplifies the process of computing GST for individuals or small businesses operating across these regions. It's designed to provide accurate GST calculations and generate periodic reports tailored to the unique tax structures of Australia, New Zealand, and many other countries.
Our GST calculator goes beyond just basic invoicing apps by focusing explicitly on tax reporting needs. It streamlines the often complex process of dealing with multi-currency transactions and varying tax rates across different countries. By centralizing these functions into a single tool, users can efficiently manage their tax obligations without the need for extensive accounting software or relying on multiple platforms for different tax jurisdictions.
I’m the founder of Keepsy.app and I currently use Xolo.io. Very happy with them.
Hi,
Thanks for your input.
BTW, I looked at both keepsy.app and xolo.io. Both look very nice!
Thanks!
The biggest problem, from what I see, is that so many of the American startups don't support for VAT calculation/info.
I believe a lot of people use Gumroad or Paddle, because even thinking about how to manage it is perplexing.
Things like Substack then become unusable to people like us, or just plain nightmare to manage the income.
I building a thing and needed to capture the VAT requirements and charge the right amount of tax, so we opted to build our own thing, with a long term view of having the data be Xero friendly as that is what we use.
Hi rosiesherry,
I find this very interesting. Thanks for the insights.
(I wonder if other people are also in a similar situation?)