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Dividend category not selectable when entering in mutual fund account

M stich

Quicken for windows (10)

A while ago there was some discussion about a non-taxable category for dividends:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7851841/why-is-there-no-category-entitled-reinvest-dividend-nt-nt-non-taxable

My question is related but different. Almost all dividends I receive are "qualified", and I want to allocate them to _QualDivInc category instead of _DivInc, but I can't. This is so that the Tax Planner has an accurate assessment of taxes on dividends. (I assume the Tax Planner uses the categories correctly, if not, that's a whole 'nother problem) I discovered this last year when I noticed my taxes were different on dividends than what I had expected. When entering an income transaction on the mutual fund, I cannot select a category, only the transfer account where the money went. (This is a single mutual fund account.) The cap. gain categories are also forced, but they have the option of _St… _Mid… _Lg… term categories to take care of the tax treatment differences. Why not the same for dividends? What am I missing?

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Accepted answers

[Deleted User]

@M stich - in the meantime, until an update is made, you can always use "Miscellaneous" option of the Income Transaction to use the "_QualDivInc" category to enter a Qualified Dividend.

[Deleted User]

@M stich - I think for your situation, you will need to keep track of your qualified dividends outside of Quicken or use a memo field to denote their status. I think the Quicken programmers may have been overzealous in removing that miscellaneous field for a Single mutual fund account. The Idea Post that @Jim_Harman brought up is indeed truly needed for your situation. Sorry.

All comments

Jim_Harman

Please see and vote on this Idea post about recording Qualified dividends.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7859839/add-qualified-dividend-as-option-for-income-div-int-etc-and-income-reinvested-transactions

[Deleted User]

@M stich - in the meantime, until an update is made, you can always use "Miscellaneous" option of the Income Transaction to use the "_QualDivInc" category to enter a Qualified Dividend.

M stich

I would use Miscellaneous if I could. Remember this is a single mutual fund account

[Deleted User]

@M stich - I wonder if you put an amount in the dividend field and then try to put the "_QualDivInc" in the Miscellaneous field, what would happen? (if you haven't tried aready). It is strange that the Miscellaneous field would be there without an input box.

[Deleted User]

mshiggins

Why are you using a Single Mutual Fund account?

M stich

I'm using a single mutual fund account because I bought this fund directly from the fund. It is not in a brokerage account, it's on its own as an isolated account, as it were.

NotACPA

BUT for an SMF type account, you can only hold that original fund in that account EVER!

If you were to sell this fund, and buy another, you'd need to create a 2nd account, whereas in a brokerage type account you can hold mulitple securities

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20373160#Comment_20373160

If one buys MFs directly from the fund company and not from a brokerage (as @M stich said was done) the fund company often requires that each MF that is owned has its own unique account number. Then if you want to download into Quicken each MF will also have a unique single fund account in Quicken. There is no choice on this matter if the fund company structures their customer accounts this way.

You are correct, though, that if the MFs are bought from a brokerage, the preferred method is to not set up the brokerage account in Quicken as a single fund account. It offers much greater trading flexibility and less accounts complexity.

NotACPA

I buy many MFs directly from Fidelity Investments … and they're ALL held in brokerage accts.

Jim_Harman

If you are downloading transactions, the fund company may require a different Quicken account for each fund. I think T Rowe Price does this for taxable accounts but not for 401(k)s.

If you are entering the transactions manually, you can set it up either way. You may find that setting it as a Brokerage account, by un-checking the Single Mutual Fund box in the account details, gives you more flexibility.

q_lurker

Even if the fund family requires a one fund -one account setup in Quicken, that account in Quicken does not have to have the SMF setup. User can change it and thus get the Misc income opportunity.

That still places the burden on the user to differentiate each Div transaction as qualified or non-qualified. I don’t see that changing at any time since that specific breakdown may not be known or revealed until 1099s are issued.

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20373218#Comment_20373218

Fidelity is many different companies. One company is their MFs company. Another is their brokerage company. You (and I) buy many different Fidelity MFs from Fidelity Investments….the brokerage company, not the MF company.

I did not say that all MF companies require single fund accounts. Capital Group-American Funds is one such MF company that does require single fund accounts. They assign an account number to each MF that you have bought from them and that is how they download into Quicken. There is no choice. If you want to download from them you will have a unique account number (both at American Fund and in Quicken) for each MF.

I now have some American Funds MFs that I bought through Fidelity Investments so the single fund accounts situation does not apply. But if I were to buy them directly from Capital Group-American Funds then they would be single fund account….again, no choice in the matter if I want to download from them.

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20373289#Comment_20373289

How does one tell Quicken to merge all the individual account numbers for each of the downloaded MFs into a single account rather than to set each of them up as single fund accounts? I was not aware that Quicken has that capability to disregard what the FI downloads.

q_lurker

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20373308#Comment_20373308

That is not what I said (or was trying to say).

If the FI downloads as 1:1 fund:Quicken-account, the user cannot do something different and still download transactions. But the one Quicken account linked to that one FI fund does not have to be a SMF account within Quicken. On normal setups, Quicken will set the account as SMF if the FI downloads on that basis. The user can change that setting away from SMF and the FI will still be happy.

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20373326#Comment_20373326

Thanks for that clarification. I am in agreement on this. Sorry about the misunderstanding.

M stich

So I went to "Edit Account Details" and I don't see an option to change it from a single mutual fund to a brokerage account. Is this possible, or can that only be done when you create the account? I fear that would loose all past history, and possibly other side effects I'm not sure I want to risk. I've gotten myself into trouble before trying to get quicken to do what I want, sometimes the cure is worse than the problem.

Jim_Harman

You don't see this setting?

Perhaps this is not really a SMF account.

Is there a Cash Bal column in the Transaction List (register)?

Is the Show cash in a checking account option selected?

SMF accounts do not have a cash balance, and selecting Show cash in a checking account changes it to an ordinary brokerage account.

M stich

Ok, this is weird.

Yes, there was a Cash Bal col in the transaction list

The Show Cash in a checking account option was NOT selected

"Single Mutual Fund Account" did NOT display as shown in your screen shot

I selected "Show Cash in a checking account" option. Took a long time, said it was creating/updating links. (What did this do? What checking account is it using, I didn't specify one? I guess I don't understand the meaning of this selection)

Go to Transaction→Income screen. At this point the Div/Cap gain income screen now has a "Miscellaneous amount" option. Ok, this is good.

Go back to the edit account details, still no line for single mutual fund account selection, but show cash in a checking account is still selected.

Deselect the show cash in a checking account, and suddenly the "single mutual fund account" magically appears! Deselected.

Long pause creating/updating links, and now every transaction is 2 transactions, one to receive the dividend, one to Xout to the account where it was actually deposited. Before it was just one transaction, where the dividend went straight to the deposit account I selected when entering it.

I can live with this scenario now, it seems much clearer to me. Entering 2 transactions for each dividend/cap gain is not a problem and actually make sens to me, like it better than before. And I can use the Misc to estimate Qual. dividends. I understand that one doesn't really know until the 1099, but in the past the large majority have been qualified, so that will likely be more accurate.

I'll read up on that option I don't understand.

Thanks.

NotACPA

Please show us the Account Details dialog, with your Account Number edited out