XBRL-GL and Standard Audit File

["Chambers, Dave {LBG, Reading, CAS South}" <dave.chambers@hmce.gsi.gov.uk>]

I found Phillip Allen's summary of the discussion between Phillip himself,
Andy Greener and Eric Cohen very interesting.

I also felt that Alex Fiteni's comments were very useful.

I appreciate that Eric Cohen is the leading authority on XBRL-GL and that 

"XBRL-GL is a generic representation of the documents, parties, resources,
links to accounts, links to XML/XBRL elements for reporting, and other
classifications that are put together in different combinations to represent
transactions or other triggers of taxation as a generic audit trail. It
represents through the existing modules some large portion of the fields
collected in a typical transaction, and the "X" of XML/XBRL is
extensibility. so it can be expanded upon for the specifics of transactions
[where these reside elsewhere than in the G/L]. Anything with monetary
amounts or quantities that can be put to accounts or classification codes
can be represented. Documents and transactions can be represented before
"accounting"/assignment of accounts or classifications".

Where Alex is correct is to highlight the practical considerations that
pertain to particularly indirect taxes. In a VAT environment, transactions
which are only held in subsidiary ledgers rather than the general ledger can
be important in establishing completeness and timeliness of VAT declaration.
In an excise duty environment, the point at which excise taxes become due
can be different to the point at which the transactions are posted to the
general ledger.

The Standard Audit File which is being developed in the OECD consists
primarily of the data elements listed in the attached file:

 <<Key Data Elements Of The Standard Audit File.doc>> 

In the UK, there has been much discussion about whether sufficient data
would be provided by an audit file containing these fields to enable
indirect tax audits effectively to be performed. The points made in this
discussion have come from the same practical place as Alex mentioned in his
postings.

The issue in this discussion is not whether the data is transmitted in XML,
XBRL-GL or indeed any other format, but whether the dataset projected for
the audit file would be fit for the purpose for which it is intended.

Dave Chambers.




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Key Data Elements Of The Standard Audit File.doc