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Several Tax Planner questions (MFS, 401(k) contributions, income transactions)

sneff30

I'm setting up the Tax Planner and am running into some issues with information entry as MFS, my spouses 401(k) contributions, and taxable income totals.

After some searching on this forum, it seems the Tax Planner isn't able to properly handle MFS situations. Currently I'm unable to enter any of my spouses information. Any workarounds?

My spouses 401(k) contributions (Set up in Paycheck Wizard as contributions to her offline 401(k)) are showing as negative income transactions against my gross income transactions.

Finally, my taxable income YTD in the Tax Center does not reflect my first paycheck of the year (or my spouses, for that matter). It only reflects the single interest income transaction we've had.

I suspect this YTD tracker is counting transactions within our bank accounts and the categories they use. Our paycheck deposits are categorized as [<Self Net Income>] and [<Spouse Net Income>] because (obviously) our gross income isn't what hits our bank account. How can I handle these transactions to accurately reflect our/my taxable income YTD?

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Comments

Jim_Harman

Is MFS = Married, Filing Separately?

This discussion may help, but I don't think the answer is what you want to hear.

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7849592/cant-enter-spouses-income-in-tax-planner-using-mfs-not-mfj

sneff30

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20408798#Comment_20408798

Yup, that's exactly the one I saw. I was hoping something had changed between 2019 and now.

That doesn't answer my other two questions, though. Do you have any insight for those?

Chris_QPW

After some searching on this forum, it seems the Tax Planner isn't able to properly handle MFS situations. Currently I'm unable to enter any of my spouses information. Any workarounds?

The only workaround I can think of is what has been suggested by others that understand the different tax situations better than me, and that is "each tax identity should be in a separate data file". If you are filing separately then they are two different tax identities. This would also fix the second problem, but more details on that below because I think it is another problem.

My spouses 401(k) contributions (Set up in Paycheck Wizard as contributions to her offline 401(k)) are showing as negative income transactions against my gross income transactions.

When you setup the 401(k) account you specify who owns it. And there is something similar done on the paycheck. I suspect this wasn't done correctly, because I have had no problem with mine being kept separate from my wife's. You can see this information the Account Details for the 401K account(s). I don't see anything after the paycheck is created that will show this kind of selection, maybe it is only the account that the transfer is done to. But when setting up it definitely asks this:

One possible bug though just off the top of my head, would be if you are at the same employer, that maybe could confuse Quicken (but I doubt it).

sneff30

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20408812#Comment_20408812

Thanks, this was the answer to the misidentified 401(k) payments. Only thing I don't have a concrete answer for is the taxable income YTD. But I think my assumption is the correct answer.

markus1957

I suspect this YTD tracker is counting transactions within our bank accounts and the categories they use. Our paycheck deposits are categorized as [<Self Net Income>] and [<Spouse Net Income>] because (obviously) our gross income isn't what hits our bank account. How can I handle these transactions to accurately reflect our/my taxable income YTD?

Use the Paycheck Wizard to correctly record gross salary and deductions. Alternatively, you can use the default categories provided that have the appropriate tax lines that will report properly in the tax planner. If you use your own categories, they need to have the correct tax lines associated with them. This is all explained in detail in the in-product help menu.

sneff30

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20408875#Comment_20408875

Yup, I've got our income categories are set up with tax line items. I've also go recurring income reminders for our paychecks set up using the Paycheck Wizard.

I guess it isn't counting the paycheck that we received on 4 January because the reminder hadn't been set up then. I did enter YTD income/withholding information when I created the reminders though, so you'd think it would be reading that.

I'll check it again on the 18th when we get our next check.

Jim_Harman

You might be able to work around some of the Tax Planner MFS limitations by creating a different Scenario for each spouse.

But for taxable investing accounts for example, Quicken does not know who each account belongs to and the Planner does not allow you to select accounts for its analysis. All dividend income is lumped into one _DivInc Category.

You should be able to customize the Tax reports by selecting accounts to include so there is a separate report for each spouse.

markus1957

For the income associated with Jan 4, you could copy/paste your last entered paycheck and change the date to the 4th. Or you could enter the next reminder, change that date in the register and edit any income or withholding differences; then edit the reminder to enter paychecks at next correct date.

But as mentioned earlier, Tax Planner will not estimate investment income correctly for MFS. That would require separate data files.