Tax Planner "Withholding to Date" is not reporting all the tax line items

JM2

I have been a long time user of the "Tax Planner" tool (circa 2005). Recently (last 3-6mo) the Withholdings are not reporting the correct amount.

It should show the following...

Tax:Fed
Tax:Medicare
Tax:Soc Sec

However, now it *only* shows Tax:Fed. Thus, when estimating how much taxes you have paid to date, it grossly underestimates. :(

The same is true for Spouse tax withholdings, only "Tax Spouse:Fed" is tallied.

JM2

I just realized - I bet it's related to the bug where you can't add tax items to a Paycheck. Because it's the same default line items which should be there.

Sherlock

The withholdings in the Tax Planner should only be the federal tax withholdings.  They're only used to determine how much of the estimated federal tax you will have paid.  You should see the accumulated medicare and social security withholdings on the Tax Center view in Tax-related Expenses YTD and in the appropriate Tax reports.

Rocket J Squirrel

Tax Planner operates on Tax Line Items, not on Categories. You should be able to connect your categories to appropriate TLIs (assuming your paycheck transactions retains the full set of splits).

It shows Tax:Fed because that category is correctly linked with the TLI W-2:Federal tax withheld, self.

Connect both Tax:Medicare and Tax:Soc Sec to the appropriate TLI, Form 1040:Fed tax w/h, Soc. Sec., self, and they should show totalled in Tax Planner. There is not a separate TLI for Medicare withholding.

Sherlock

Rocket J Squirrel said:

Tax Planner operates on Tax Line Items, not on Categories. You should be able to connect your categories to appropriate TLIs (assuming your paycheck transactions retains the full set of splits).

It shows Tax:Fed because that category is correctly linked with the TLI W-2:Federal tax withheld, self.

Connect both Tax:Medicare and Tax:Soc Sec to the appropriate TLI, Form 1040:Fed tax w/h, Soc. Sec., self, and they should show totalled in Tax Planner. There is not a separate TLI for Medicare withholding.

I suspect you're confusing the federal tax withheld on social security income with the social security and medicare tax being withheld from a paycheck.

Tax:Medicare  tax line item should be  W2-Medicare tax withheld, self 
Tax:Soc Sec    tax line item should be  W2-Soc. Sec. tax withheld, self 

A spouse's pay check should use W2-Medicare tax withheld, spouse and W2-Soc. Sec. tax withheld, spouse 

Rocket J Squirrel

Sherlock said:

I suspect you're confusing the federal tax withheld on social security income with the social security and medicare tax being withheld from a paycheck.

Tax:Medicare  tax line item should be  W2-Medicare tax withheld, self 
Tax:Soc Sec    tax line item should be  W2-Soc. Sec. tax withheld, self

I am confused a bit. I missed seeing those two TLIs because I was looking for them in the Tax Planner and did not find them. Are they used anywhere in the TP and I just missed them?

NotACPA

They're assigned in the category list ... and because of this assignment they appear in the TP.

Rocket J Squirrel

Can you show me? I no longer have a paycheck, so have to fake it. I added this subcategory but its TLI does not appear in Tax Planner anywhere that I can find.

Sherlock

Rocket J Squirrel said:

Sherlock said:

I suspect you're confusing the federal tax withheld on social security income with the social security and medicare tax being withheld from a paycheck.

Tax:Medicare  tax line item should be  W2-Medicare tax withheld, self 
Tax:Soc Sec    tax line item should be  W2-Soc. Sec. tax withheld, self

I am confused a bit. I missed seeing those two TLIs because I was looking for them in the Tax Planner and did not find them. Are they used anywhere in the TP and I just missed them?

Those two TLIs are not used in the Tax Planner.  They're not needed to track and project the federal income tax.

JM2

Thanks guys. Helpful.

Yes, when i said Tax:Medicare it should have been "W2-Medicare tax withheld, self ". But i didn't know that because it doesn't show up on my list anymore. Why does my list look all jacked??


In some good news, i just got R39.23 and and they paycheck tax options are back! So at least they fixed that bug.

JM2

I came up with a ghetto work around, just change the tax line item each is associated with.

Tax:Fed = W-2:Federal tax withheld, self
Tax:Medicare = W-2:Federal tax withheld, self
Tax:Soc Sec = W-2:Federal tax withheld, self

For the sake of estimating withholding for the year it should work, right?
(or am i missing something important?)

Sherlock

JM2 said:

I came up with a ghetto work around, just change the tax line item each is associated with.

Tax:Fed = W-2:Federal tax withheld, self
Tax:Medicare = W-2:Federal tax withheld, self
Tax:Soc Sec = W-2:Federal tax withheld, self

For the sake of estimating withholding for the year it should work, right?
(or am i missing something important?)

Tax:Medicare  tax line item should be  W2-Medicare tax withheld, self 
Tax:Soc Sec    tax line item should be  W2-Soc. Sec. tax withheld, self 

Your medicare and social security withholdings are not included on the W-2 as Federal income tax withheld (box 2).

If you include medicare and social security withholdings in federal tax withholdings, the tax planner will think you are withholding more federal tax than you actually are. 

JM2

Yes, you are right. i'm getting all turned around because of the child tax credit. :(
it's not baked into the estimates by default and it's showing i owe a lot more.