Tax Planner wrongly including foreign amounts in Project Amounts

jbfg97

I use Quicken Classic Deluxe version R62.16 build 27.1.62.16 on Windows 11.

I receive my U.S. Social Security pension into a foreign account and, as the documentation says, “The Tax Planner supports only U.S. currency.” so I set up a U.S. currency dummy checking account to manually enter the Social Security Gross and tax amounts information into Quicken so that the Tax Planner would be accurate.

This worked well until I set up an Income Reminder for this U.S. account. I already had an Income Reminder set up for my foreign account. When I checked the Tax Planner, the Projected Amount for Taxable Social Security Benefits and Withholding Taxes now include the amounts from the dummy U.S. checking account and from my foreign account. However, the foreign account scheduled amounts do not show in the section Quicken YTD Transactions and Scheduled Transactions.

Also, it uses the foreign account amounts in the Projected Amount and does not convert them to USD using the Currency Rate. If I delete the Income Reminder for the U.S. account, the Projected Amount goes back to 0 (i.e., it no longer includes foreign account amounts that still have an Income Reminder.)

Has anyone else encountered this and found a solution? The only workaround I’ve found is to delete the Income Reminder for the foreign account.

CaliQkn

@jbfg97 if you are using that US dummy account solely for the tax planner, why not just set up a separate data file just for that dummy account?

jbfg97

@CaliQkn Thanks for the suggestion. I have other U.S. accounts in this data file that also use the Tax Planner, so I need to keep this dummy account in the same data file.

CaliQkn

@jbfg97 instead of using reminders for the US dummy account, why not post transactions in the account register to the end of the tax year?

Otherwise, your situation is complicated by a workaround that needs another workaround. Hopefully someone can provide you with a solution. Sorry I couldn't find one for you.

Boatnmaniac

@jbfg97 - Is the category that is used for the SS deposits in both the local bank account and in the US bank account the same?

If so, maybe try creating a new category for the deposit into the local bank account. Do not assign a tax form line item to it. This should keep the deposits made to this account out of Tax Planner and the Tax Reports.

For the deposit into the US bank account leave the category unchanged. This should then keep the deposits made to this account in the Tax Planner and the Tax Reports.

Does this resolve the issue for you?

jbfg97

@Boatnmaniac - Thanks for your suggestion. Yes, the categories are the same for the foreign and US bank account. However, my foreign account is a real bank account that I use daily, so I need to have the correct categories for my reporting (actual spending/budgets). I exclude my US dummy account from all my reports as it only has these SS transactions.

The more I think about it, I probably should have reported this as a problem to Quicken versus a question as I believe this is a bug. As I originally stated, the documentation says, “The Tax Planner supports only U.S. currency." So, the foreign amounts should never appear in the Tax Planner. The amounts only appear as Projected Amounts and never as posted (Actual YTD) amounts. Also, the foreign amounts only appear as Projected Amounts when the category is also used in a US account.

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20489608#Comment_20489608

Yes, perhaps, Quicken Inc. might decide to somehow entirely exclude foreign currency accounts from Tax Planner but that might open up other issues with other categories for other users. That makes me think that Quicken Inc. might not consider making this change but it couldn't hurt to ask. Just note that the odds of them making a requested change made by a single Quicken user, especially if they determine that the issue is not identified as a program bug, to be virtually nil.

I really think the issue you are seeing is more related to using an income category for your foreign account SS deposits that has a tax line item associated with it. Categories that have tax line items associated with them are, by design, supposed to be included in Tax Planner and Tax Reports. A new income category with no tax line item associated with it will keep those particular income transactions out of Tax Planner and out of the Tax Reports. And I am pretty confident that if you do not do this you will not be able to resolve the Tax Planner issue you are seeing.

If you are not familiar with how to do what I am suggesting:

1. Back up your data file (in case something goes wrong or you do not like the results).
2. Go to Tools > Category List. Find the SS income category you are currently using in both the foreign and US checking accounts. Then right click on it and click on "Edit" to open the Edit Category popup.
3. On the Detail tab, change the Category Name to something else that will identify it as being used with the US account, such as "Social Security Benefits - US Acct" or something similar.
4. On the Tax Reporting tab: Leave it as is since this will have the necessary Tax Line Item association with it.
5. Then go back to the Category List and click on New Category at the top right of the view. That will open the New Category popup that will look like the Edit Category popup but with all fields being blank.
6. Enter a unique name for the new SS income category, such as" Social Security Benefits - foreign account" or something similar.
7. Make sure it has the same Subcategory as the category for the US account.
8. Do not assign a tax line item to it.
9. Click Save.

Now you will have two different similar categories for use with your SS income. Leave alone the SS income transactions and the Income Reminder for the US account. In your foreign account, change the category to the new SS income category you just created….you can do this by going to Edit > Find & Replace or you can do it individually for each transaction. If you have an Income Reminder set up for your foreign account, edit that so that it has the new category. Now Tax Planner and the Tax Reports will include only the SS transactions that are included in the US account.

Regarding your other reports where you do want the SS income from your foreign account included: Customize those reports to exclude the US account from those reports or by selecting the new category and deselecting the category used for the US account. Do this by clicking on the upper right Gear icon of the report and clicking on the Accounts or Categories tab. Then click on OK to save the changes. When you close the reports you should be prompted to save the customized reports to My Saved Reports. Then each time you want to open those reports, go to My Saved Reports to open them without having to re-customize them, again.

I suggest trying to do this to see if it resolves the issue for you. I suspect it will.

If it does not or you do not like the results, then you can always restore the backup file you created at the start of this process to restore everything to the way it was before you made these changes.

jbfg97

@Boatnmaniac - Thank you for the detailed explanation. You have pointed out some things that I was not aware of and can use in the future. However, I use several other categories that have tax line items (Charitable Donations/Healthcare expenses & insurance/Interest Income) in both my foreign account and US account and the foreign amounts never appear in the Tax Planner. The problem only occurred when I started to use an Income reminder for my SS income and, as I stated before, only for projected amounts and never for posted amounts. Here is an excerpt from the Quicken documentation (About using the Tax Planner to estimate taxes) for the Tax Planner:

What currency does the Tax Planner support? The Tax Planner supports only U.S. currency. If you use non-U.S. currency accounts, the Quicken tax tools in the Tax Center view of the Planning tab (including the Tax Planner) ignores amounts from these accounts.

So, this is now clear to me that it is a bug. But, as you stated, they may not change this for only one user. However, I did submit the problem to them today. For now, I have eliminated the Income reminders for my foreign account and the Tax Planner is now accurate.