Entering an RBCO rollover to IRA

PCWizard

Under the terms of a divorce I've received an RBCO (Retirement Benefits Court Order) rollover to my IRA. The funds came from my wife's Federal Employee Retirement System TSP (Thrift Savings Program) account, first to a temporary TSP created for me and then from there to my IRA. This is considered a rollover contribution to my IRA. How to enter this properly in Quicken Deluxe for Windows R49.33 Build 27.1.49.33?

Tom Young

Are you attempting to come at this from the standpoint of modifying a "joint" data file, one that accounted for the wife's TSP, or are you creating this out of whole cloth in a new Quicken file accounting only for your own finances?

If the latter, and if the transfer of the Investment Funds has no effect beyond increasing your assets and Net Worth in this new Quicken file, then it seems that all you need to is the use the "Add" action to register the securities inside your IRA. You could make this a simple or as complicated as you want - one big Add for each security stating only the number of shares received "today" and with no basis recorded on the "simple" end - or a lot-by-lot Add for each security with dates acquired and basis. Every thing else being equal I'd probably opt for "simple" as basis and holding periods don't mean a lot, from an income tax standpoint, inside an IRA.

PCWizard

Tom, Thanks for responding. I removed the wife's accounts from a Joint data file last year so this Quicken file is only for my own finances. Also, the Rollover is strictly cash, no securities or funds involved, no basis to be considered. That being said, if I try to add just a Cash Transfer in I get a demand for a Transfer Account which, of course, doesn't exist in my now Single Quicken file, it's coming from an "outside" source. I recognize this isn't a common situation but it is presenting me with a conundrum. Even so, I'm not the only Quicken user in the world getting divorced, so I'd think this must have come up for someone before. Any further thoughts?

NotACPA

What happened to that temporary TSP file? Did you create it in Q?

If not, you can record the cash coming into your IRA as coming from the IRA itself by using the IRA name enclosed in square brackets [IRA ACCT NAME].

PCWizard

NotACPA, Thanks for responding. I've been thinking along these lines, myself. I did NOT create a temporary TSP account in Quicken. I've been thinking I might try creating a TSP account (it's like a 401k in the government retirement system) and then transferring (rolling over) to my IRA. Your trick of using [brackets] is intriguing, as well. Would there be any advantage/disadvantage to either possibility?

NotACPA

If you look at the OPENING BALANCE in your bank/credit accts in Q … that's how Q reflects a dollar amount txn without an income category.

You could also create a non-taxable category ("TSP Txfr") and show the money coming from there

PCWizard

I created a temporary TSP account and then transferred that to my IRA. Seems to have worked but would have been easier if Quicken even recognized what a TSP account is. Thanks for all the input from everyone.

NotACPA

Q can't download from TSP because the Trustees of TSP haven't authorized such.

In what other way did Q not recognize the acct? Because my ex-wife had TSP and I had no problem creating it in Q.

Tom Young

" That being said, if I try to add just a Cash Transfer in I get a demand for a Transfer Account which, of course, doesn't exist in my now Single Quicken file, it's coming from an "outside" source."

As you probably understand, an Add of a security is like immaculate conception, it doesn't require any "source" of the security, it "just happens." Using the square brackets around the name of the Account in the Category field for the cash has the exact same effect, you don't need to specify where it came from it just miraculously shows up in your Account.

PCWizard

NotACPA, Perhaps I misstated my point when I said, "would have been easier if Quicken even recognized what a TSP account is." I was referring to the options under the Add Account tool. Under Offline Account the listed options are Brokerage, 401(k), IRA, 529 Plan, Other Investments. I'm a retired IT Tech, definitely not an accountant. My guess was that 401(k) or IRA would serve my purpose for creating a temporary TSP account. I chose IRA but 401(k) is probably more accurate. For this purpose it doesn't matter in my mind, they're both tax deferred accounts. But my point in stating "would have been easier if Quicken even recognized what a TSP account is" was just that for an accounting novice such as myself it would have been nice to see TSP in that list of accounts to create. Maybe, 401(k)/TSP or something like that. I get it that a TSP is not as common for users as the other choices, but still...
Once created I was able to deposit in my IRA with no problem following instructions from J_Mike's January 2019 advice.

NotACPA

It's TSP's decision, NOT Q's, to disallow downloads from TSP into Q … which is why Add Account got you nowhere.

For TSP, you need to create an offline investment acct.

BTW, my ex-wife had a TSP acct, which is when I went thru this