Tracking IRS debt

Dolphind23

I owe money to the US IRS. I'd like to set this up as a single separate account in Quicken can anyone suggest the best way to do so? IE: As loan, savings account, credit card, is there something I'm missing?

NotACPA

It should be some sort of Liability (debt) account … which would exclude Savings accounts which are assets.

BUT, rather than creating ANY account, have you looked into Savings Goals? That will set aside the money without the need for another account. It will make it appear that the money has been taken from your checking account without actually doing so.

A Savings Goal is money set aside for a future expense, which it seems you're trying to do.

Dolphind23

Thanks, What I want from an "account" is to include the penalties and interest in the payments.

NotACPA

Are the penalties and interest already known? Or are they future expectations?

If they're already known, they can be included in the account as part of the Opening Balance, OR that OB can be simply the original amount owed with penalties and interest subsequently added to the account as additional transactions.

If future expectations, just add add'l transactions as needed.

And now that I understand the situation a bit better, a Savings Goal wouldn't be an optimal solution as it would remove the money from appearing in your checking account NOW, without actually paying anything. A Liability account of some sort is the way to go.