account for the medicare premium deduction from social security check?

goshawk

Because my bank shows only the SS income after the medicare premium deduction is taken, I need to account for the $185 per month premium. Is it reasonable to make three separate categories?

1. Soc Sec income (what my bank statement shows)
2. medicare premium income (which doesn't show on any statement)
3. medicare premium expense (also on no statement, but to balance out the income, and so I can enter it as an insurance expense)

Maybe a better approach?

Quicken classic Mac

q_lurker

Perhaps it is obvious, but to be clear between the OP reference and Chris's reference, 'Social Security Income' is not the same. The OP referred to it as "What the bank statement shows". Chris is showing it as the gross (total) SS income. That gross amount would be "What the bank Statement shows" + the 'Premium' mentioned by the OP. That is, there is no need for two positive components to the split transaction. The various reductions of that gross income can be split as many ways as the user chooses to differentiate the items. (I choose to differentiate via the memo line but use the same category for all the reductions.)

Chris_QPW

Addressing just this statement:

Thanks. You're saying I should manually adjust for the medicare deduction, currently $185? So if the bank statement shows, let's say $1000, I should change that to $1185 and then enter -$185 in the split.

What you should do is setup a reminder as a split transaction.

In that reminder the first split line would be your $1185 gross amount.

Then on the next split line(s) you subtract the $185, so that you will now have a net transaction that is equal to what was deposited in your account.

That reminder goes in before you download the social security transaction, and then the reminder gets matched to that downloaded transaction.

As for the exact split line categories/tax lines. I use the ones above, but I'm not even sure if they appear like that in Quicken Mac, the more important part is what tax line the category is linked to. It could really be any category you choose. And in my case, I don't import from Quicken to TurboTax for this, I just enter them manually so as long as they are separated out when I run the Tax Schedule report, I'm happy.

For last year that looked like: 159.7 x 12 =1916.4 and 15 x 12 = 180

Chris_QPW

A simple split transaction using the different categories/tax lines is the standard way of doing this. Mine look like this (Note I'm on Windows, but for this it would be the same on Quicken Mac):

q_lurker

Perhaps it is obvious, but to be clear between the OP reference and Chris's reference, 'Social Security Income' is not the same. The OP referred to it as "What the bank statement shows". Chris is showing it as the gross (total) SS income. That gross amount would be "What the bank Statement shows" + the 'Premium' mentioned by the OP. That is, there is no need for two positive components to the split transaction. The various reductions of that gross income can be split as many ways as the user chooses to differentiate the items. (I choose to differentiate via the memo line but use the same category for all the reductions.)

goshawk

Thanks. You're saying I should manually adjust for the medicare deduction, currently $185? So if the bank statement shows, let's say $1000, I should change that to $1185 and then enter -$185 in the split.

Then, what category to use for the $185? Health & Fitness>Health Insurance>Medicare B (I created Medicare B)

And in the tax-related section, Schedule 1040, Tax line "Fed tax w/h, Soc Sec"

Does that look right?

Thanks

q_lurker

For the $185, I use my Insurance:Health category that ties to tax line for :Schedule A: Doctors, dentists, hospitals". That is where I see TurboTax end up leaving that value. For those just getting the standard deduction, that really has no value as a Schedule A deduction. It is certainly not a Fed Tax withholding.

Chris_QPW

Addressing just this statement:

Thanks. You're saying I should manually adjust for the medicare deduction, currently $185? So if the bank statement shows, let's say $1000, I should change that to $1185 and then enter -$185 in the split.

What you should do is setup a reminder as a split transaction.

In that reminder the first split line would be your $1185 gross amount.

Then on the next split line(s) you subtract the $185, so that you will now have a net transaction that is equal to what was deposited in your account.

That reminder goes in before you download the social security transaction, and then the reminder gets matched to that downloaded transaction.

As for the exact split line categories/tax lines. I use the ones above, but I'm not even sure if they appear like that in Quicken Mac, the more important part is what tax line the category is linked to. It could really be any category you choose. And in my case, I don't import from Quicken to TurboTax for this, I just enter them manually so as long as they are separated out when I run the Tax Schedule report, I'm happy.

For last year that looked like: 159.7 x 12 =1916.4 and 15 x 12 = 180

Jon

The default categories for Quicken Mac don't include a specific category for Medicare premiums; it does have Health & Fitness:Health Insurance, but that is not marked as tax-related by default so you'll have to edit that to get it assigned to one of the Schedule A medical expense lines.

There's also no default category for Social Security income, so you'll have to add your own and assign it to Form 1040 line "Social Security income, self".

goshawk

Thanks, this is all good and useful. I do appreciate the help.

JS