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Comment by 2Gkashmiri | Hacker News Reader

i have a fundamental problem with "accounting" for small businesses.

1. if they are registered with GST, they should probably start maintaining inventory and for that,this device is not useful.

2. if they are NOT registered with GST, they can't even bother with this because nowadays UPI is becoming the norm and all sale gets recorded there anyway.

this would only serve the niche of "not-registered for GST and using cash" but knowing how big india is, with the right marketing, this should blow up in a good way

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> this would only serve the niche of "not-registered for GST and using cash"

Wouldn’t this segment have an incentive to not digitize their records as they’re evading tax?

This was the case several years ago, not sure if still relevant anymore. People evading tax were only interested in non-cloud solutions for their records.

No one is evading tax. Thats the beauty and craziness of gSt. All tax is already paid for and collected by govt.

What the end dealer does when he is nit registered for gst is avoid 18% tax on HIS MARGIN. thats peanuts compared to 90% of the product cost. That if end dealer gets 10% profit.

You only evade taxes in gst if you purchase imported goods outside of tax chain in cash or from manufacturers who sell in cash or service provider who sells in cash.

If you pay by bank, the gst is almost always paid beforehand

If the device is cheap enough(so theft is not a concern), and it has a wifi signal, a barcode scanner could easily be plugged in, or added wirelessly so it can track SKUs or whatever the shop uses. It syncs to a more powerful device which can maintain inventory counts .

Oooooooo

Now you are talking.

The website does NOT explain this. I read about the app which is meh. You end up like thousands of copycat khata apps that do single entry accounting.

Didnt test your app but that is quite difficult to do on its own so if you are able to connect with existing accounting softwares, then it can be much better.

(Just to clarify -- I'm personally not involved in the app, but the ESP32 platform is versatile, and IIRC has built in bluetooth, so I don't think it's big stretch to assume they could add this)

I think having a single place to record all your transactions would be a good feature. And if they have a way to send receipts to customers via SMS/whatsapp, it would be a great.

I would like a simple record keeping box that can be shared with more complex devices for applications requiring messages or complex reports. I would like to see the device maintain a simple "Datagram" approach for each transaction with text file export of grouped transactions.

USA, no idea what a GST is or it's requirements.

Gst is indirect sales tax on goods and services. Indian gst is modelled after Canadian gst/hst if you know that.

I think I know it as simply sales tax and some USA states have it and some don't.

Thank you.

It's not a sales tax, it's similar to a VAT but doesn't just compound.

So I suspect that if you are manufacturer, you pay it on your raw materials, you collect it on your finished goods, and there is a credit system in place so it effectively passes through.

Thank you for the clarification. Is it used to keep manufacturers from wasting materials?

Sorry for late reply. It's more complicated than that, most countries (there are lots with GST) who implement it have replaced something existing for manufacturers etc.

Usual justifications are 1) avoid cascading (you pay tax on the tax that was charged you for inputs) that makes things more expensive with more steps 2) simplify the whole system 3) make it easier for exporters to compete globally (e.g. because you can zero out the tax if govt chooses to allow)

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