Withholding Foreign Taxes - US Quicken Windows

splasher

Starting separate thread from  https://getsatisfaction.com/quickencommunity/topics/whats-the-best-way-to-enter-withholding-taxes since it is about Canadian usage and do not want to have any cross country confusion in either thread.

I have some foreign stocks held through Edward Jones and they are setup for automatic reinvest.  When a dividend is paid, a foreign tax is withheld and EJ reports it as three transactions such as (amounts shown just for example):

1. Dividend $20
2. Buy $19
3. Withdraw - (category - Foreign tax) $1

Since this does not show as a reinvest, I have been making the following changes:

1. Change the Dividend to $1
2. Change the Buy to a ReinvDiv (still at $19)
3. leave the Withdraw as is at $1

The end result is the cash in the account remains at zero and the portion of the dividend that I get to keep is shown as reinvested.

Am I doing this correctly / is anything inherently wrong?  Is there a better way?

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Using US Quicken Premier 2016 for Windows on Win7

q_lurker

Nothing inherently wrong with that approach.  Either way, you'll end up with the $1 expense to Foreign taxes, and the right share count for the right prices (basis).  

The distinction is in the treatment of the $19 as Reinvest or Div/Buy and for me that comes down to personal preference.  In Quicken, the Reinvest means Amount Invested is not changed; the Div/Buy means Amount Invested is changed.  That is an ages-old argument for Quicken users with no right answer.  I will suggest that if for other funds, you are using the Reinvest approach, for consistency and comparisons you should use that approach here as well --- and vice versa.  

??? wrong link in your question ???

jr7107

q.lurker said:

Nothing inherently wrong with that approach.  Either way, you'll end up with the $1 expense to Foreign taxes, and the right share count for the right prices (basis).  

The distinction is in the treatment of the $19 as Reinvest or Div/Buy and for me that comes down to personal preference.  In Quicken, the Reinvest means Amount Invested is not changed; the Div/Buy means Amount Invested is changed.  That is an ages-old argument for Quicken users with no right answer.  I will suggest that if for other funds, you are using the Reinvest approach, for consistency and comparisons you should use that approach here as well --- and vice versa.  

??? wrong link in your question ???

I like Div/Buy. Personal preference. And I change it every time it downloads differently.

I use MiscExp to a Tax:Dividend Withholding category.

But as long as you categorize, I think your method is correct like Lurker said.