Wrong Tax value computed in Capital Gains Estimator tool

figonzalez

I'm using Quicken Classic Premium on my Macbook Pro with mac os Sequoia 15.4.1 to estimate IRS taxes on capital gains and losses. This computation is wrong when computing Long-Term Losses — the computation incorrectly uses the Short-Term tax rate rate instead of the Long-Term tax rate. I've reported this to Quicken and I guess they're working on it.

jacobs

@figonzalez You're correct: when the sale of a security holding is a loss, Quicken is using the short-term capital gain/loss rate, even when the loss is a long-term holding.

Here's an illustration of the bug. To simplify, I set the estimator to use 15% short-term, 24% long-term, no NIIT, and no state tax.

I sold 10 shares of a long-term holding for a $100 gain, and the Estimator window shows a $15.00 tax:

That's correct. 15% long-term rate x $100 gain = $15.00.

Now I changed the sale of the same long-term holding to sell it at a $100 loss. The estimator shows a -$24.00 tax:

That's wrong. It should be 15% long term rate x -$100 loss = -$15. Instead, Quicken is using the short-term rate of 24% x -$100 loss = -$24. That's a bug which should be fixed.

The same bug is present when calculating state tax: it uses the short-term rate for state tax when there is a capital loss, instead of the long term rate.

I have submitted this example to Quicken through Report a Problem. We get no confirmation of such submissions, but hopefully it will make it to the developers and be fixed in a release sooner rather than later.