Tax Impact of 401 (k) Accounts Errors - How or If to Fix ...
FrZpd7843
Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭
When I perform an account report, the hidden account, "Tax Impact of 401 (k) Accounts" appears at the end of the list of investment accounts (no seeming way to deselect it) with a non zero entry. In order to open the hidden account and find out what is in it, I did a find and replace, searching for uncleared transactions in the cleared status field, and I found that two transactions were erroneously mapped to this hidden account. The transactions, both of which were entered in a taxable brokerage account as a long term reinvested capital gains (two different securities, two transactions separated by two years), and which look identical to many other similar entries in the same brokerage account, somehow also appear in the "Tax impact ..." hidden account.
When I delete the two transactions in the hidden account, the cash balance reverts to zero in the hidden account, BUT the account shows a negative securities balance (quicken somehow still believes the securities belong in the hidden account), even though there are no transactions entries in the hidden account. My overall total account values in quicken show correctly before and after deleting the erroneous entries in the hidden account, and my investment totals are all correct, with or without correcting the hidden account.
It seems odd that the hidden account, even with no entries, shows a negative securities balance.
So far this account seems like a nuisance. I decided to open up a backup file, and restore to the state before deleting any entries in the hidden account, in case the deletions make the software unhappy but I am concerned that normal reinvested long term capital gains are randomly duplicated in this hidden account. Numerous other nearly identical entries for the same two securities in the same brokerage account have been made for years without getting duplicated in the hidden account. Many other long term capital gains for both securities have been made without error over the years.
As a trial, on a sample copy of my quicken file, I deleted the hidden account altogether by first going to the account in the manner described above (using find and replace), and the report now is clean of the hidden file. I don't feel comfortable proceeding with a file where I deleted a hidden file, as the software may get unhappy, so I will continue using the version with the erred entries and the hidden file intact. As far as I could tell, the deletion caused no malfunction or improper reporting in non-hidden accounts.
Should I just let the hidden file have the errors and ignore the report entry for the hidden account (I have been doing this for a couple of years now)? Delete the hidden file (seems risky)? Is there some way in which an brokerage entry is made that can trigger this mapping, such as making a typo, hitting enter, and then editing, and hitting enter?
By the way I have validated and repaired my file as well, just to remove any other possible explanations for this issue, however the two entries still appear in the hidden file.
When I delete the two transactions in the hidden account, the cash balance reverts to zero in the hidden account, BUT the account shows a negative securities balance (quicken somehow still believes the securities belong in the hidden account), even though there are no transactions entries in the hidden account. My overall total account values in quicken show correctly before and after deleting the erroneous entries in the hidden account, and my investment totals are all correct, with or without correcting the hidden account.
It seems odd that the hidden account, even with no entries, shows a negative securities balance.
So far this account seems like a nuisance. I decided to open up a backup file, and restore to the state before deleting any entries in the hidden account, in case the deletions make the software unhappy but I am concerned that normal reinvested long term capital gains are randomly duplicated in this hidden account. Numerous other nearly identical entries for the same two securities in the same brokerage account have been made for years without getting duplicated in the hidden account. Many other long term capital gains for both securities have been made without error over the years.
As a trial, on a sample copy of my quicken file, I deleted the hidden account altogether by first going to the account in the manner described above (using find and replace), and the report now is clean of the hidden file. I don't feel comfortable proceeding with a file where I deleted a hidden file, as the software may get unhappy, so I will continue using the version with the erred entries and the hidden file intact. As far as I could tell, the deletion caused no malfunction or improper reporting in non-hidden accounts.
Should I just let the hidden file have the errors and ignore the report entry for the hidden account (I have been doing this for a couple of years now)? Delete the hidden file (seems risky)? Is there some way in which an brokerage entry is made that can trigger this mapping, such as making a typo, hitting enter, and then editing, and hitting enter?
By the way I have validated and repaired my file as well, just to remove any other possible explanations for this issue, however the two entries still appear in the hidden file.
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Comments
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When through the entire process from the beginning, this time starting with a file validation. Now when I delete the two errored entries in the hidden file, the balance is zero as expected. The only mystery that remains is why these entries in a normal brokerage account were ever mapped to the hidden tax file to begin with.4
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