RESP Grant, how to enter in quicken

rhains

What acction could I choose for Grants made by the government into my RESP account ?
They are going into my account as cash, but not sure how to enter it into Quicken.

Tom Young

It seems like you have two "accounting" options... well three really.  Understand this is a "pure accounting" discussion as I'm not really familiar with Canadian statutory (e.g., "tax") accounting that might influence things, though my quick read is that if you use the the account for its intended purposes the grant isn't "taxable income" to you and if you don't use the account for its intended purposes you have to return the grant.

So...

1. Create an "income" Category, like "RESP Grant" and use that as the offset to the cash deposited into the Account.  If you end up using the Account money in accordance to the plan then you'll never return this income.  Even though it might seem odd to call this "income", from an accounting perspective you can view this as a form of non-taxable income Canada is paying you to encourage you to save for a child's post-secondary education, which benefits the nation as a whole. 
   
2. Create a balance sheet "liability" Account, like "Deferred RESP Grant", and use that as the offset to the cash deposited into the Account.  If you end up not using the money for its intended purposes and have to pay it back, then when you write the check you'll use this liability Account as the offset to the checking Account entry, zeroing out the liability Account.  This approach is consistent with the reality that at the time the cash is deposited into the Account you don't know with absolute certainty that the money will be used for its intended purpose and you may end up having to pay it back.  If the money is used for its intended purpose then then you could zero out this liability Account at that time, offsetting the entry with that "RESP Grant" income Category.
3. You could "magically" enter the cash into the Account without offsetting it to either a Category or some other Account by making the offset to the cash deposit to the same Account in which the deposit is made.  This is a bit of Quicken programming trickery, frequently referred to as a "one-sided entry", that has its effect - accounting wise - on your Net Worth.  That is, if you run a Net Worth report before making the cash deposit entry and then run that same report after entering the transaction, you'll note that you Net Worth has increased between the two reports by the amount of the deposit.

Tom Young

It seems like you have two "accounting" options... well three really.  Understand this is a "pure accounting" discussion as I'm not really familiar with Canadian statutory (e.g., "tax") accounting that might influence things, though my quick read is that if you use the the account for its intended purposes the grant isn't "taxable income" to you and if you don't use the account for its intended purposes you have to return the grant.

So...

1. Create an "income" Category, like "RESP Grant" and use that as the offset to the cash deposited into the Account.  If you end up using the Account money in accordance to the plan then you'll never return this income.  Even though it might seem odd to call this "income", from an accounting perspective you can view this as a form of non-taxable income Canada is paying you to encourage you to save for a child's post-secondary education, which benefits the nation as a whole. 
   
2. Create a balance sheet "liability" Account, like "Deferred RESP Grant", and use that as the offset to the cash deposited into the Account.  If you end up not using the money for its intended purposes and have to pay it back, then when you write the check you'll use this liability Account as the offset to the checking Account entry, zeroing out the liability Account.  This approach is consistent with the reality that at the time the cash is deposited into the Account you don't know with absolute certainty that the money will be used for its intended purpose and you may end up having to pay it back.  If the money is used for its intended purpose then then you could zero out this liability Account at that time, offsetting the entry with that "RESP Grant" income Category.
3. You could "magically" enter the cash into the Account without offsetting it to either a Category or some other Account by making the offset to the cash deposit to the same Account in which the deposit is made.  This is a bit of Quicken programming trickery, frequently referred to as a "one-sided entry", that has its effect - accounting wise - on your Net Worth.  That is, if you run a Net Worth report before making the cash deposit entry and then run that same report after entering the transaction, you'll note that you Net Worth has increased between the two reports by the amount of the deposit.

rhains

Thanks Tom for your answer.