nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Roth Dividends Category is Wrong

KenC

Why can't dividend income in a Roth investing account have the correct category of Investments:Dividend Income Tax-Free? It automatically picks Investments: Dividend Income as if it's taxable, which is wrong. This is not autofill either. It's pre-picked and cannot be overwritten. The correct category is indeed available. Seems like a bug.

I'm finding that the only option is to use Payment/Deposit and set a QuickFill rule for a custom Payee, then write a memo for the ticker symbol.

It defeats the purpose of having a retirement account.

Find more posts tagged with

Accepted answers

NotACPA

What security is this happening with? And, it's possible, but unlikely, that the SECURITY is tax-free … it's by holding the security in a Roth account that it becomes tax-free.

SO, Dividend Income is the correct category (pending your response to what security), and it shouldn't show on your Tax reports if you've correctly set the tax status of the account.

Should you hold the same security in both a taxable and a tax-free/deferred account … the div in the Taxable account would still be taxable.

jacobs

Why can't dividend income in a Roth investing account have the correct category of Investments:Dividend Income Tax-Free? It automatically picks Investments: Dividend Income as if it's taxable, which is wrong.

That's the way Quicken Mac works. All dividends go to Dividend Income unless the actual security is set up as a taxi-free security (e.g. municipal bond fund). Whether the dividend is otherwise taxable or not is determined by the type of account. Quicken Mac's tax reports will NOT show dividends and capital gains in retirement accounts as taxable income; these reports by default exclude income from retirement accounts. So the tax reporting is correct.

I still create custom reports to look at various groupings of earnings. This is where it messes me up.

If you don't want to use the tax reports, you could simply duplicate your existing custom income reports so one includes only taxable accounts the other only includes non-taxable accounts.

NotACPA

@KenC I also hold FDRXX and SPAXX (in differing IRA accounts), and the securities are taxable. It's the Roth account that makes them non-taxable.

All comments

NotACPA

What security is this happening with? And, it's possible, but unlikely, that the SECURITY is tax-free … it's by holding the security in a Roth account that it becomes tax-free.

SO, Dividend Income is the correct category (pending your response to what security), and it shouldn't show on your Tax reports if you've correctly set the tax status of the account.

Should you hold the same security in both a taxable and a tax-free/deferred account … the div in the Taxable account would still be taxable.

KenC

Thanks for the quick reply, and I think you're saying "but unlikely, that the SECURITY is taxable [not tax-free] …"

These are SPAXX and FDRXX, which is happening in my Roth and HSA "investing" accounts respectively. I can understand the logic in how it connects taxability to the security instead of to the account now that you describe it. But for these accounts, I don't bother with Tax reports regardless, yet I still create custom reports to look at various groupings of earnings. This is where it messes me up.

jacobs

Why can't dividend income in a Roth investing account have the correct category of Investments:Dividend Income Tax-Free? It automatically picks Investments: Dividend Income as if it's taxable, which is wrong.

I still create custom reports to look at various groupings of earnings. This is where it messes me up.

If you don't want to use the tax reports, you could simply duplicate your existing custom income reports so one includes only taxable accounts the other only includes non-taxable accounts.

KenC

Yeah, that's what I'm finding I have to do — I have to alter my custom reports. Adding all categories (taxable as well as tax-deferred) is easy enough, but now I have to remember what each of my reports includes. Quicken limits me in how I can see the groupings that I want to see.

Thanks for the second opinion.

NotACPA

@KenC I also hold FDRXX and SPAXX (in differing IRA accounts), and the securities are taxable. It's the Roth account that makes them non-taxable.

jacobs

now I have to remember what each of my reports includes. Quicken limits me in how I can see the groupings that I want to see.

@KenC Just in case you're not aware, you can rename reports at any time (e.g. "Taxable Income", "Taxable Investment Income", Non-taxable Investment Income"), and you can also create custom folders with your own names to keep your reports organized. So I'm not sure how Quicken limits groupings of reports you want to see.

KenC

Not sure what you're talking about. When I go to Reports in the top menu, I find that I have to go through some excruciating customization just to see my taxable dividends, interest, and capital gains. This is why I've made my own reports to use categories.

Am I using an inferior version of the software? I'm on Quicken Classic Deluxe, version 8.01, on macOS 15.3.

See attached screenshot of what I have in Reports.

Jon

As for renaming reports, you can only do that for your saved reports which are listed under "My Reports".

Screenshot 2025-02-01 at 11.31.43 PM.png

If you have a lot of saved reports and want to organize them into folders the way that Quicken Reports is, click on the "+" to the right of the"My Reports" to create a folder. Then you can drag reports into the folder, and click on the folder to only see the reports in it ("My Reports" will still show all of them).

jacobs

Not sure what you're talking about. When I go to Reports in the top menu, I find that I have to go through some excruciating customization just to see my taxable dividends, interest, and capital gains.

@KenC No, there's nothing "inferior" about your version of software. 😉 It appears you're just using the wrong report for what you want to see.

[I want] to see my taxable dividends, interest, and capital gains

This is exactly what the Tax reports do. Click on the Tax folder. There's a Schedule B report for interest & dividends and a Schedule D report for capital gains/losses. Or you can run the "Tax Schedule" report which will combine these and other items you might need for tax reporting.

Screenshot 2025-02-02 at 12.59.54 AM.png

What I was saying in an earlier post is that these tax reports by default do not include any retirement accounts, since interest, dividends, and capital gains in such accounts are not taxable income. (Should you want to see the dividends or capital gains in one o r all of your retirement accounts, you can force the report to do so by clicking on the Accounts tab and selecting the accounts you wish to report on.)

KenC

@jacobs Just in case you're not aware [using your tone], Roth is tax-deferred account. This is why the question.

I actually have four tax-deferred accounts — Roth, HSA, 401k, and 401k Roth. It's same situation in each. Creating Schedule B and Schedule D for all those accounts doesn't make any sense. But even if I did so and renamed them, it requires both Schedule B and Schedule D as separate reports for each of my four retirement accounts. Very unwieldy. The appearance also drab and difficult to read, whereas in Category Summary reports, which know is deprecated, I can easily take a glance at all yields, quickly flip, etc. Much more intuitive and natural.

The built-in category of Dividend Income also messes up my monthly budget when my trades span more than a month.

jacobs

Sorry my “tone” offended you; when I said “just in case you weren’t aware”, it was simply trying to not assume anything and make sure you knew of a feature. Just trying to help.

As for a Roth account, no, it is not tax-deferred; it is tax-free. (Traditional IRA/401k accounts are tax-deferred, while Roth accounts are post-tax savings which grow tax-free.) But for the purposes of a tax report in Quicken, income reported in any retirement accounts, Roth and traditional, is not taxable.

I guess I’m not understanding why you need to create separate Schedule B and Schedule D reports for each of your four accounts individually. All your retirement accounts would normally default to not being included in the tax reports, but if you want to see the income in those accounts, why can’t you create a single Tax Schedule report which includes only the four retirement accounts; that would show your non-taxable income in those accounts in one report.

KenC

Your apology is accepted.