Why Doesn't Quicken Offer Finer Breakdown for IRS Tax Schedule A Categories (17 Merged Votes)

William Toperzer

I have wondered and been frustrated for years (when Quicken and TurboTax were both under Intuit) why Quicken did / does NOT offer a finer breakdown for Schedule A Categories so that the Tax Report better groups things together.  For example, Insurance Premiums are broken out separately on the IRS form, but there is no way to segregate them in Quicken.  They all get lumped together with everything else in the only offered breakout for Doctor Fees, Dentists, Hospitals.  It can't be that difficult to implement the correct sub-categories that match the IRS breakouts. 

Anybody else frustrated by this? 

This is why years ago I gave up trying to simply import from TurboTax.  Instead, I have to export the Schedule A report to Excel and then create and populate extra columns to separate out the amounts.

How do I formally submit this to Quicken AND get an answer?

MikeBritt

Quicken Premier 2016 Win 10 has 3 categories under Tax Schedule
A Medical.  Turbo Tax has 8 or more
medical categories.  How do I add those categories
to Quicken?

NotACPA

You can, in QWin, add all the categories that you wish ... just do TOOLS, Category List and then click "New Category" in the upper right hand corner.

BUT, I suspect that what you really want is to add new "Tax Lines" to Q's list of available Tax Lines ... and there's no possible way for a user to do that.

We've been asking for additional Tax Lines for YEARS ... and it hasn't happened yet.  Keep your fingers crossed.

MikeBritt

You are right.  I want more "Tax Lines".  Sad they won't enable such an easy fix as to add more.

Barry Keith

There should be only one tax line for medical and dental expenses because schedule a has one line for medical and dental ex

UKR

There should be only one tax line for medical and dental expenses because schedule a has one line for medical and dental ex

Doesn't really matter, Barry.
You can have more than one category in Quicken, all pointing to the same tax line item. That allows you to, for example, maintain separate categories for Medical expenses and Dental expenses, yet have them all correctly reported in Tax - related reports and exported to tax software.
Also, ISTR that Turbotax asked me separate questions for medical and dental when I filed my tax return this year ... if I didn't have separate categories I'd have had to break out the old pocket calculator and total up my separate expenses.

UKR

This Question has been changed into an Idea.
Ideas are supposed to be brought to the attention of the Quicken programmers, for possible implementation in a future version of Quicken.

In a nutshell, it is suggested that
the programmers review the table of tax line items available in Quicken and add any missing line items.
For example, the missing Schedule A Medical tax line items.
The default categories provided should better coincide with the questions asked in tax software, to make it easier to correctly fill out the tax returns.

If you would like to see changes made in the area of tax reporting, please click the VOTE button at the upper right of this webpage.

Jim_Harman

While they are at it, it would be really nice if Quicken provided provide better support for Qualified dividends. There is now a tax line for them and a box for them in the Tax planner, but no way to differentiate between qualified and ordinary dividends when you are recording the transactions.

Since the Qualified/Ordinary information is not available in downloaded transactions, perhaps a good way to implement this would be to change the "Tax free" checkbox on the Edit Security details dialog to "Dividend type" radio buttons, with choices of Ordinary, Qualified, and tax exempt.

I realize that this would not be 100% accurate, because many mutual fund dividends are a mixture of ordinary and qualified, but it would lead to a much better tax estimate.

Maybe I should submit a separate Idea for this... [Edit] I see there already is one. I will add this there.

volvogirl

There should be only one tax line for medical and dental expenses because schedule a has one line for medical and dental ex

You don’t have to enter the separate categories in Turbo Tax. You can just enter the grand total on any line. As stated before only the total goes to schedule A. The Turbo Tax categories are just to help you remember what you can deduct so you don’t forget anything.

Unknown

Schedule A, PMI Tax Line Item - Quicken needs to add a tax line item for Schedule A, Private Mortgage Insurance and separate PMI in the tax reports so they are not lumped under mortgage interest.

UKR

Which line on Schedule A does one use to report Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)?

If it's not tax - deductible, just add a Personal Expense Category without a tax line item assigned to it. Edit your mortgage payment reminder to create an extra split line for the PMI portion of your payment.

q_lurker

@William Toperzer:  Yes, over the years others have voiced their frustration on this topic.  "Why" is always an almost impossible question to answer aside from the trite -- That's the way it was specified to the programmers.

"For example, Insurance Premiums are broken out separately on the IRS form, but there is no way to segregate them in Quicken."  I would suggest that is inaccurate.  The IRS Schedule A does not separate Insurance from other doctor and hospital expenses.  TurboTax does to aid the user in gathering information. 

Now following along that line, I see Quicken (historically and currently) most directly associating categories to IRS Tax lines, not to TurboTax intermediate entries.  That makes sense to me in that Quicken predates TurboTax and was separately owned before they were commonly owned.  Quicken also needs to consider other tax prep software which may not take the same more refined breakdown that TT takes.  I would also offer that TT has over the years greatly refined their breakdown.  IMO, Quicken has had little impetus to follow suit.

It also applies that if you do export Quicken data to TurboTax, it usually does (in my experience) get to the right place on the final IRS forms (exceptions apply I expect).  The data my not appear on the expected TT intermediary form in the expected place but it gets to the right IRS line.     

I suggest to you that the Tax Summary report may be more meaningful than the Tax Schedule Report (or the Schedule A and similar reports in Premier levels and higher).  The Tax Summary report flows more along category lines such that Insurance would be separately listed from Hospital and Doctor expenses.  

William Toperzer

I should have originally said that the TT interview (not Schedule A) asks for categories like medical insurance to be broken out from doctor fees.  q_lurker is correct that the Tax Summary report is more helpful than the Tax Schedule Report, assuming that one has created and applied all the proper categories and sub categories.  That said, with all the other granularity Quicken has provided, it would seem it is time for added breakdowns for income tax prep.

Robbieblindt

Schedule A Tax Line only give 2 different options:
Schedule A: Medicine and drugs / Schedule A: Doctors, dentists, hospitals.

Why does Quicken not update the tax line options for categories to be more compatible with current tax software. Modern tax software ask for itemized categories for prescription cost, medical professional cost, medical facility cost, medical procedures (x-ray & lab work), long-term care services, eye care expenses, medical supplies & equipment cost.

Also way does Quicken not offer a way of recording medical mileage on all Quicken software instead of just the Business software.

Rocket J Squirrel

We have asked for a more complete Tax Line Item list for decades. If they wouldn't do it while owned by Intuit in cooperation with TurboTax, I have no hope they'll ever do it. But I voted this up & so should you, @Robbieblindt.

q_lurker

I've asked this to be merged with 
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/19825117#Comment_19825117
in which case you probably need to vote on that Idea.  

Merger completed.

Janet Berg

We cannot use Schedule A for Medicare expenses. Please eliminate this confusion and help us not report Medicare expenses twice.

Quicken_Natalie

Hello @Janet Berg,

Thank you for bringing this to the attention of the Community!

I went ahead and merged your post with an ongoing Idea for this same feature request. Our developer's review Idea threads to get an idea of what people would like Quicken to offer.

Be sure to add your vote by clicking on the gray triangle right above the current vote count, located in the blue box at the beginning of this thread:

Thank you,

Quicken Natalie

JustMeHere

I will point out that getting a tax line in Quicken is only half the battle (maybe even 1/3).  There is the tax line in the category, there is the tax line that has to go into the right place on the reports, and there is the agreement with Intuit to get it imported into TurboTax correctly.

JustMeHere

P.S.  I recently saw a post from a Canadian user that there are missing tax lines for them too.  In this case it had something to do with what a farmer would have to report on.

Quicken_Tyka

Hello All,

 This Idea seems to have fallen stagnant and due to the Age of the request and lack of User Votes/Comments, will be archived within the next 7 business days.

 If you would like to see this Idea kept alive and considered for possible future implementation in Quicken, be sure to Add your Vote and a comment explaining how this Idea would be beneficial for you.

More information, including steps to vote and how to submit your own Ideas for future product features/improvements, is also available here.

 Thank you,

 Quicken Community Support Team

Rocket J Squirrel

I would vote for this again if I could. I've lost track of how many decades we've been asking for this.

Chris_QPW

If after all the years when this was something they could do "internally" I doubt they would do be able to get it done now that they are two separate companies.  I suspect that even if Quicken Inc separated them out, Intuit wouldn't make the change to their software to import and use that value.

For several years I tried importing Quicken data into TurboTax, but what found is that it was taking much more time to correct the imports than it would to just type in the numbers.  The only exception to that was security sells because there were so many of them back then and they actually do import correctly.  For the rest it is much easier to either get it directly from the source (like a 1099) or look at a report in Quicken and type in the number.

Rocket J Squirrel

Chris_QPW said:

For several years I tried importing Quicken data into TurboTax, but what found is that it was taking much more time to correct the imports than it would to just type in the numbers.

That's the point. If Quicken data would import better, they would take less correcting.

Chris_QPW said:

The only exception to that was security sells because there were so many of them back then and they actually do import correctly.  For the rest it is much easier to either get it directly from the source (like a 1099) or look at a report in Quicken and type in the number.

That is one thing I would never import from Quicken. TT imports that directly from my brokers, which is what the IRS gets as well. Sometimes my securities have adjusted bases which are not reflected in Quicken because I don't know about them until I get the 1099 from the broker or if I pore over each multi-page statement, which I don't. This occurs most commonly with bond premiums.

I eventually ended up importing only 2 things from Quicken: charitable contributions and SALT. (Those were the good old days when SALT was deductible.)

Quicken has dozens of TLIs I never use. I want it to add the ones I would use. Whether Intuit/TT would use them is another question, but if the TLIs existed, they could at least be reported in Quicken.

Chris_QPW

Actually your right about the importing of the securities.  It has been several years since I used TurboTax (just switched back to it last year) so what I'm remembering that from was way back before I could get all the needed information from my broker, and I now that I think of it, it was mostly for ESPPs.

As for the importing to be worth something if they had finer detail, well lets just say I don't believe that they would ever get it fixed to the point I would trust it.  And besides it just isn't what I spend a lot of time on while doing my taxes.

I did vote for the idea though.

Unknown

I want to have a tax line for 1099-R IRA State Tax Spouse so that I can keep track of my wife's IRA state withholding. There is a 1099-R Federal Spouse but no State Tax for spouse in the Q schedule. How can it be added?

Steve54@

Telling the users that we can enter categories and assign them to tax forms, misses an important point. This approach means that every user needs to understand the fluctuations and instability of the US tax system.

I would restate the feature request as the following: Quicken should provide additional categories and associated tax assignments because I expect Quicken to be able to parse these as the US tax regulations change. For example but not limited to Schedule A.

Change is routine, stability is a myth.

Steve

Steve54@

Link to TurboTax discussion of what can be charged to Medical Expenses: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/health-care/medical-expenses-checklist/L6MkxxlyW

SomebodyInGNV

Please add tax ITEM as a sort order choice in the tax summary report. I'd like to subtotal by tax schedule (I can) and sort by tax line (I can't). Since it's already a field on the report, you should be able to sort by it.

Rocket J Squirrel

I just learned today (after all these years) that TurboTax provides TAX.SCD and TAX.THP. I compared the TT version and the Q version and they are identical except for whitespace.

So I'm guessing that Quicken doesn't "own" the contents of those files. The question then becomes: why doesn't TT update those files to conform to its own software by adding the missing line items?