Interesting Interest Issues

Question

Been using QWIN 55.15 Canada for tracking earned interest in US, Canadian & British bank accounts, and in non-registered and registered (i.e. tax-free as identified in Account details) investment accounts in both the US & Canada over the last 50 years.  To compartmentalize these, I needed to create Interest Income accounts in three currencies for the banks which may/may not send year-end interest statement, while using _IntInc for both types of investment accounts.  Thus I have this category list:

However, all my registered accounts default interest to _IntInc, not _IntIncTaxFree.  Why are some of the categories "NT" and one is "TaxFree".  Then when I go into my Registered Account and try to select IntIncTaxFree, all I'm offered is _IntInc - why?

Tom Young · Accepted Answer

The _IntIncTaxFree Category is kinda an oddball.

The distinction between taxable interest and non-taxable interest for income tax purposes in Quicken is determined by the nature of the Account in which it's earned.  If you're using the IntInc Action to record the interest in both type of Accounts then you'll see _IntInc as the Category in reports irrespective of the nature of the Accounts.

To use the _IntIncTaxFree Category you have to actually invoke it using the MiscInc Action:

Jim_Harman · Accepted Answer

In the US version of Quicken, the _IntIncTaxFree and _DivIncTaxFree Categories are assigned automatically if you record interest or dividend income for a security where you have checked the Tax Free box in the Security Details. This would be used for example if you hold tax exempt bonds in a taxable account.

These Categories have Tax line items of Schedule B:Int. or Div. income, tax free and thus this income is not included in the interest and dividend income sections of the Tax Planner or the Tax Schedule report. They are shown in the Tax Summary report.

Dividend and interest income in accounts that have been marked "Tax deferred" is recorded as _DivInc and _IntInc but is excluded from the Tax Planner and the Tax reports. The Tax Planner always excludes these accounts and the Tax Schedule and Tax Summary reports exclude them by default. Thus there is no need to record these transactions as _IntIncTaxFree and _DivIncTaxFree.