accounting software *free & open source*

[Micha Feigin]

On 07/06/2013 05:06 PM, E.S. Rosenberg wrote:
> 2013/7/6 vordoo <vordoo at yahoo.com>:
>> On 2013-07-04 16:45, sara fink wrote:
>>
>> I would like to know which accounting software (besides linet) is accepted
>> by Israeli tax authorities?
>>
>> Me too, but one that is not a proprietary web site, I would like to keep my
>> data & have the option to work off-line:-)
> In a similar thread someone once wrote that gnucash could never be
> certified by the tax authority for the reason that it is OSS and thus
> you could modify it to function in ways deemed illegal by the tax
> authorities....
>
> If this is indeed the case then that is sad for us but I don't see how
> we can change it...
>
> Well maybe...
> I guess one could have an open source web platform, of which the code
> is vetted by the authorities but they only accept it when it's coming
> through the webplatform which is guaranteed to run an acceptable
> version.
> Like that your data is guaranteed since you can always download the
> software and your data and install it on your own server and the tax
> authorities still have an application that you can't change because it
> is running outside of your control.
>
> Regards,
> Eliyahu - אליהו
>
 From what I remember from a few years back when this discussion came up 
at the time, there were two problems with getting both a free and 
opensource application that is a legal accounting software:

1. There is a requirement is that you can't change the software (and the 
data) -- same problem with there is with an open GSM device by the way, 
where you are not allowed to distribute the firmware so that people 
can't make the hardware do illegal stuff.
2. The other part is the very high costs involved in getting such a 
software certified. I believe that it's on the order of multiple tens of 
thousands. This means that unless you are a very reach philanthropist 
you would not spend your money certifying the software.

On the other hand as memory serves, you can run your books using an open 
source software and then submit the printouts to a certified accounted 
to make a legal report. You may need to work with generic receipts in 
parallel though.

Just my 2c