The Community Meetup- March 2024 Edition

Quicken Janean

This month we are discussing the Tax Planner as it is in fact, tax season. The Tax Planner has been around for a while and like the Lifetime Planner, many of you have voiced that it is out of date and can be improved. So let's take a look into what the Tax Planner can do and discuss what you as users would like to see changed.

This Planner is not available in Quicken Classic for Mac, but it is planned to be added. So now is the chance to voice your opinions on what you would like to see.

If you have an idea that you want implemented, post it in the product idea section so it can be voted on. With enough votes, we will forward the idea to the product development team for consideration. This is the best way to see features that you use improved upon.

We have a current idea regarding the Tax Planner regarding how certain sections of the planner can be improved.

Front Page-5.pdf

Main Article Page-6.pdf

Release Page-5.pdf

Statistics Page-6.pdf

Jim_Harman

@Quicken Janean

Thanks for highlighting the Tax Planner. I find it very useful once you understand its quirks. Also I have noticed some significant improvements in recent releases, so that entries are no longer being changed unexpectedly and the Tax Planner data now updates the Projected Tax section on the Tax Center page correctly.

A usage note: The Planner works best if you have Reminders set up for all your taxable income and repeating tax-related expenses. The Planner uses the estimated amounts in the Reminders to project your taxes for the whole year. As you enter the actual amounts and accept the Reminders throughout the year, the Planner refines its projections.

If you are looking for more Tax Planner Ideas, you could re-open the lengthy Idea discussion titled "Allow Users to Add Tax Forms to Tax Planner (+18 Merged Votes)". This was Under Consideration as of last August but was later closed and archived. I don't remember how many votes it had, but it was over 50 IIRC.

Also the following Idea already has 41 votes

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7854216/tax-planner-compute-taxable-social-security-income

And it would be really useful if Quicken would fix the import of 2023 TurboTax data so it does not produce Error 2.

RNeisser

I second the suggestion regarding the import of TurboTax.

Pedro504

I've been very pleased with the tax planner. I successfully setup my 2024 scenario and found it accurate and informative. Having all taxable income transactions and reminders setup was the key for me.

I'd like to see additional information included on the report to facilitate tracking summary data on the report to actual transactions and planned reminders.

irvserve

I just tried the planner. Found no info on SS income or IRA withdrawals. For SS, if they are automatically deposited, how would the planner pick them up? For intermittent IRA deposits how would those show up?

How is this better than using Turbotax, and just updating your current year with your next year estimates, which would likely be more accurate?

Jim_Harman

Social Security: Set up a Reminder like this

Where the Split Category has the

first line = Gross amount (positive number)

Additional lines = deductions, entered as negative numbers.

You need to set up Categories for the gross amounts with a tax line items of Form 1040:Social Security Income, Self for your SS and a different Category for your spouse's gross amount and the tax line item of Form 1040:Social Security Income, Spouse

And here is a "Cheat sheet" for entering distributions from IRAs and other tax deferred accounts:

In the IRA, click on the gear at the top right and select Edit account details. Click on Tax Schedule and set Transfers out to 1099R: Total IRA taxable distrib., like this:

For the taxes to be recorded properly in Quicken, the transfer must be entered as a Deposit transaction in the receiving account. It can be a banking or an investing account, but it must be a taxable account, not another IRA for example. If there is already an Xout transaction in the IRA account that transfers money to the taxable account, note the amount and delete it before entering the Deposit. Do not try to edit the receiving end of the transfer.

In the receiving account:

1)  Enter a Deposit transaction for the net amount of the RMD...a positive number.

2)  Split the category:

• Line 1 of the split:  Category =  the IRA account name in [square brackets] and the gross distribution amount...a positive number.
• Line 2 of the split:  Category = the Fed taxes withholding category that you use...a negative number.
• Line 3 of the split:  Category = the State taxes category that you use...a negative number.
• Total of the split:  Must equal the net amount of the deposit.

If you receive the distributions regularly, you can set this transaction up as an Income Reminder.

In the IRA account:  Delete any downloaded brokerage transactions for

• The net distribution
• The Fed taxes withheld
• The State taxes withheld

With this setup, the taxable income will be shown in the “1099-R Total IRA Taxable distrib.” and the tax withholding in the withholding sections of the Tax Schedule report. 

RNeisser

Many thanks for this; I have set it up and yep, taxable income from the RMD shows up in the tax planning estimate.

irvserve

Thanks. I appreciate the comprehensive answer on how to handle those, Well Done!

I believe I'll still stick to turbotax for estimating the next year, but that's my personal preference.

Pedro504

Here are two advantages I found using Quicken Tax Planner for estimating my 2024 tax liability.

1. Tax planner uses the updated standard deductions for 2024. In my case the standard deduction for 2024 is increasing by $1,600
2. Tax planner uses the updated IRS tax tables for 2024

fanfare

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20427612#Comment_20427612

"How is this better than using Turbotax, and just updating your current year with your next year estimates, which would likely be more accurate?"

The Tax Planner is so quirky, I just abandoned it long ago.

Like you, I track taxes with the tax software, however, if you think about it you are spending an awful lot of time per year just prepping for a future interaction with the IRS.
I've already started working on my 2024 tax return.

—

Also the Quicken Tax Summary report is very helpful when the appropriate tax forms are assigned to your categories.

@irvserve

Jim_Harman

The Tax Planner has its limitations and takes some time to set up properly, but I find it useful for projecting the tax impact of making investment changes - selling to rebalance or Roth conversions for example. It is also helpful to decide how much to pay in estimated taxes, to avoid surprises in April.