R53.26 removes tax year 2022 from Tax Planner

Rocket J Squirrel

Tax info in R53.26 is updated to handle tax year 2024. While this is a good thing, it means TY2022 falls off the list. This happens every year.

If you, like me, like to compare Quicken Tax Planner results with your actual taxes, do that for TY2022 before updating Quicken.

For TY2022, Tax Planner said my tax liability was about $2000 more than it actually was. It got my AGI exactly right and I never did dig deep enough to find the discrepancy.

Chris_QPW

For TY2022, Tax Planner said my tax liability was about $2000 more than it actually was.

This is exactly why I have long ago started treating the Tax Planner in Quicken as nothing more than "in the ballpark estimate" and used an actual tax program for more accurate estimates.

Rocket J Squirrel

This is exactly why I have long ago started treating the Tax Planner in Quicken as nothing more than "in the ballpark estimate"

I agree and do the same. But it at least is somewhere in the ballpark and not off by an order of magnitude.

Chris_QPW

Well, "ballpark" was sort of tongue and cheek since the reason I stopped counting on it was it through me way off one year and I ended up with paying a penalty with interest. So, yeah it can be "way off".

markus1957

Since 2015, Quicken has put in the effort to improve and update the calculations under-the-hood in Tax Planner. It now can provide a better-than-ballpark tax estimate for the most common tax returns that include wages, interest, dividends, cap gains, IRA, pension, Soc. Sec., with either standard or itemized deductions. I'm not aware of any outstanding calculation issues that have been identified and left unresolved. More complex returns are a challenge and getting QDI right takes some manual work, but that is not unique when making projections without the benefit of 1099s.

If the AGI was exact, the most likely inputs to cause an overestimate of tax owed are not selecting the Over 65 option in deductions, guessing wrong on the QDI manual input or failing to manually enter any credits like the foreign tax credit. Other input discrepancies in Tax Planner would generally cause the AGIs to diverge.

Ps56k2

Same here - I don't trust Quicken with all the Cap Gains, etc - since the 1099 is what gets reported.
Plus - with Qual Divs and other aspects of Divs, CapGains, etc - what Quicken records may be slightly different than reality.

I also use the Quicken Tax Planner to get an idea of what my tax situation is -
but I can't really tell until I see my end of year mutual fund cap gains, etc.

Lastly - as I recall, once January 2024 rolls over, you can't easily look at your 2023 planning data - maybe that has changed -
But that was a real killer - had to make sure I ran the Tax Planner at the very end of December to get an idea of what the taxes might be and potentially adjust my final January ES-1040 payment ….

AND - you need to install the latest Quicken release to get the new pulldown tax menus.
I'm still on R47.xx - and will cross my fingers when installing whatever is the latest release during December year end.

markus1957

Lastly - as I recall, once January 2024 rolls over, you can't easily look at your 2023 planning data - maybe that has changed -
But that was a real killer - had to make sure I ran the Tax Planner at the very end of December to get an idea of what the taxes might be and potentially adjust my final January ES-1040 payment ….

That is an issue when rolling into the new year and the new year tax schedules are not incorporated into the version being used. It will not be an issue if you update to the current release which includes 2023 & 2024 tax schedules, but it will be an issue if you do not update, in which case you have to roll back your computer clock to see 2023 data.

Chris_QPW

My original problem was how Quicken handled my employee stock options. Basically, I didn't realize that I would have to pay estimated taxes because it said that I wasn't going to owe that much at the end of the year. But in truth a lot of not trusting it depends on the fact that it in fact doesn't have the correct information. I have one security that downloads with everything as a "dividend" when in fact most of it is return of capital. But that information isn't even on Chase's website until I get my 1099.

But another area is the paycheck reminder where they have refused to put in and "end date". This is a serious problem for people like teachers. The paycheck reminder will go to the end of the year even though that isn't what happens for their paychecks. For me in the same area was that I would max out certain things in my paycheck long before the end of the year like my 401K contribution. That meant that at least at the first 1/2 or so of the year, the prediction would be off by quite a bit.

Boatnmaniac

@Rocket J Squirrel said -

Tax info in R53.26 is updated to handle tax year 2024….This happens every year.

Yes, I was happy to see the 2024 tax year option now showing up but for me I cannot start a plan for it because…

Putting in the new tax year prior to 2024 is great but it doesn't mean much to those wanting to start planning taxes for that year while this restriction is in place. Hopefully this issue will be fixed before we exit 2023….the sooner, the better.

Rocket J Squirrel

@Boatnmaniac

I was happy to see the 2024 tax year option now showing up but for me I cannot start a plan for it

You are correct sir. I'm surprised they took away 2022 before adding 2024 (and making it look available because it's in the menu).

RichardCSchreyer

You need to create a scenario then select scenario number rather than Projected

It will then give you a snapshot of 2024

Rocket J Squirrel

@RichardCSchreyer

You need to create a scenario then select scenario number rather than Projected

Thank you! I was unaware of that!

markus1957

In my case, I keep a fairly detailed set of bill & income reminders. I usually enter the last of the 2024 reminders into the register in mid-December and then update them with 2024 estimates. So to plan for 2024 with the updated estimates I set my computer clock to Jan 1 and then open Quicken. At that point, the Projected scenario is for 2024. Then I Copy that to Scenario 1 and after making sure it looks right close Quicken, reset my computer clock and open it again. Then I have a scenario to work with to plan for the upcoming year.

Adding- It would be much simpler if Quicken interpreted a future year as Jan 1 and just showed the data. Setting the clock ahead is a roundabout way of demonstrating it could be done with minor coding changes.

leishirsute

I use reply on the Tax Planner to do the calcs but I often enter User Entered data instead of using Quicken's data gathering.