Tax Planner Quarterly Estimated Pmts for 2020 computes payments in wrong years.

deltavee

The tax planner shows my quarterly paid and scheduled 2020 Fed estimated taxes running from 6/2020 to 3/2021, and doesn't include the estimated quarterly taxes already paid this year in 3/2020. The tax planner is set on 2020. The tax year is 1/2020 through 12/31/2020. This glitch makes quarterly tax planning impossible. What's going on here?

markus1957

Check that the tax line assigned to the Category "Tax:FedEstimated" is "Form 1040:Federal Estimated tax, qrtrly".

The January payment in 2021 for tax year 2020 is normal.  Two payments scheduled means you still have another reminder scheduled or the reminders table is corrupted.  If Validate or super-validate do not clear the corruption, you may need to delete all entries in the Reminders table to clear it out. Close and re-open Quicken before adding them back.

If you make a copy of the file, you can revert back to quickly if the fix attempts do not work.

Frankx

Hi @deltavee,

I just wanted to make it clear that Quicken uses the payment due dates that the IRS has established for Federal estimated payments and the due dates ALL fall outside of the calendar year quarter end dates. 

The last of the 4 payments (which covers the 4th Quarter of the calendar year) is not due until January 15th of the following year.  These "delays" give taxpayers time to close their books and then calculate their potential incom tax liability for each quarter, and then make the payment.  There would be no time to do that if the tax were due on the last day of the quarter.

Frankx

deltavee

Thank you!

Chris_QPW

Select Ctrl+J and select the reminder and then Edit -> This instance and all future instances.

What dates are on there?
It should be 4/15/2020, 6/15/2020, 9/15/2020 (and if you select "change") you should see 1/15/2020.

If you have changed these because of the extension on the filing of taxes and such I wouldn't be surprised in the least that the Tax Planner hasn't been changed to allow for that fact.

Rocket J Squirrel

I ran into a similar, but not identical, problem with estimated taxes in Tax Planner. My workaround was to delete and re-enter the reminders.

Long thread here: https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7875690/tax-planner-not-including-future-estimated-state-tax-payments

My final answer here: https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20092583/#Comment_20092583

There is unexplained weirdness here, but perhaps my workaround will work for you, @deltavee .

deltavee

I tried the Ctrl+J, Edit>This instance... The dates the tax planner shows for estimated tax payments for tax year 2020 are 6/15/2020, 9/15/2020, 12/15/2020, and 3/15/2021. It omits the estimated tax payment made on 3/15/2020 even though the category is Tax:FedEstimated. I don't file for extension and haven't made any changes for that. Still miffed at the problem.

markus1957

When you set up the reminder, you chose the "quarterly" option in the "Due Next" field rather than "estimated taxes".  Estimated taxes is at the bottom of the pull-down selection; it's a special schedule.

deltavee

Thanks markus1957, but that didn't work. I deleted all existing estimated tax reminders and set up a new reminder on "estimated taxes" instead of "quarterly". Same result: my estimated taxes paid to date don't show up in tax payments>estimated taxes, and payments scheduled for tax year 2020 (based on calendar year) include a payment in 2021. It's also scheduled five tax payments instead of four, with two payments on the same day.

markus1957

Check that the tax line assigned to the Category "Tax:FedEstimated" is "Form 1040:Federal Estimated tax, qrtrly".

The January payment in 2021 for tax year 2020 is normal.  Two payments scheduled means you still have another reminder scheduled or the reminders table is corrupted.  If Validate or super-validate do not clear the corruption, you may need to delete all entries in the Reminders table to clear it out. Close and re-open Quicken before adding them back.

If you make a copy of the file, you can revert back to quickly if the fix attempts do not work.

deltavee

Thanks for explaining this. Beats me that Quicken defaults it's estimated tax payments for 2020 to include January 2021. Makes more sense to me for Quicken to allow for a user-defined quarterly tax schedule that would have all estimated tax payments fall within the same calendar tax year.

Frankx

Hi @deltavee,

I just wanted to make it clear that Quicken uses the payment due dates that the IRS has established for Federal estimated payments and the due dates ALL fall outside of the calendar year quarter end dates. 

The last of the 4 payments (which covers the 4th Quarter of the calendar year) is not due until January 15th of the following year.  These "delays" give taxpayers time to close their books and then calculate their potential incom tax liability for each quarter, and then make the payment.  There would be no time to do that if the tax were due on the last day of the quarter.

Frankx

deltavee

Thank you!

volvogirl

The 4th qtr estimated tax payment is not due until Jan 15 of the next year.  You still get credit for it on your current year return, federal & state.  

But if you want to deduct the 4th state estimated payment on your federal schedule A you need to pay it before Dec 31.  Or it will won't be deductible until the next tax year. So if you pay 2019 4th qtr state in Jan 2020 it goes on your 2020 Federal Schedule A.  Then if you make your 2020 4 qtrly payments by Dec 31 you could actually have 5 state payments on your 2020 schedule A which might give you a bigger deduction.  Some people use that for tax planning. 

Same for property tax.  In Calif we pay 1/2 in November and 1/2 the next April.  But I used to pay 100% in November every other year so I could get 3 payments in the same year and have a bigger federal deduction.   

Frankx

@volvogirl,

You are correct in your planning commentary about potentially bunching your state tax payments in the 4th quarter.  However keep in mind that for federal tax purposes the deduction for state & local taxes (commonly referred to as SALT now) - including but not limited to state income taxes, city income taxes, and local taxes (like real estate taxes) - are now limited to a maximum of $10,000 per year, per joint tax return.

So there isn't a whole lot of bunching of SALT going on anymore... sadly.

Frankx