Remove "Tax effect of 401k accounts" hidden account

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Bill25
Bill25 Member ✭✭✭
edited April 2022 in Registers & Transactions (Windows)
I don't understand why this exists with many odd transactions and zero balance.
Can I just delete all the entries? Will they keep coming? What causes them? The account that is generating the transactions didn't do it until a certain date, but I can't figure out why it started.  
The hidden Tax Effect account is extraneous in all my Reports.
Reference this earlier comment, now closed for comment.
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7905994/tax-impact-of-401-k-accounts-errors-how-or-if-to-fix
Quicken (and TurboTax FWIW) user since 1992.
Windows IT Administrator since 2002.
Windows 11 Pro running on a crappy off-the-shelf HP PC.
Beer lover since 1968.

Comments

  • Chris_QPW
    Chris_QPW Member ✭✭✭✭
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    The tax effect of 401K accounts represents to me one of the aspects of Quicken that I really don’t like.

    There are certain things that Quicken does hidden from the user.  This is one of them, another is the information stored for ESOs.

    One has to understand that in reality the user was never supposed to see this account.  It just so happens that because this was actually implemented in an account, that was just hidden, people have figured out clever ways to view it.

    But just because people have figured out how to access it doesn’t mean the truly understand exactly how that account is being used.  Sure we know the general intent, but not the details.

    As such when things go wrong with it, it is extremely hard to give the exact instructions on how to fix it.  And it is even possible that there isn’t any way to fix it.
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  • Sherlock
    Sherlock Member ✭✭✭✭
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    The purpose of the Tax Impact of 401(k) Accounts account is to enable Quicken to track the tax impact of traditional 401(k) accounts due to the 401(k) employee contribution in paycheck transactions.  This basically means, when we enter a paycheck reminder with a 401(k) employee contribution, a corresponding self-referencing MiscExpX action transaction is entered in the account with the built-in _401Contrib category which is associated with the W-2:Salary or wages, self  tax line item or the built-in _401ContribSpouse category which is associated with the W-2:Salary or wages, spouse tax line item.  The effect is to appropriately reduce the reported salary or wages by the amount of the 401(k) employee contributions in the appropriate tax related views and reports.

    The alternate approach of setting an appropriate tax line item on the Transfers in: pull-down menu on the 401(k) account's Tax Schedule Information window does not handle the 401(k) employer contributions appropriately: open the 401(k) account register, press Ctrl + Shift + E, and select Tax Schedule

    Note: When we set or unset the tax line item on the Transfers in: pull-down menu on the 401(k) account's Tax Schedule Information window, Quicken prompts us to add or delete these MiscExpX action transactions in the Tax Impact of 401(k) Accounts account. 
  • Bill25
    Bill25 Member ✭✭✭
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    Thanks Chris and Sherlock for the explanations and insight.  It is a complex "feature."  I just wish it stayed hidden.
    I only wanted to get rid of the superfluous entry in my Reports. So I made a backup and then deleted all the transactions and the (hidden) account.  My account balances were unchanged.
    I have no use for 401k so will wait to see what all I "broke".  It'll probably be reincarnated with some future update anyway.
    Quicken (and TurboTax FWIW) user since 1992.
    Windows IT Administrator since 2002.
    Windows 11 Pro running on a crappy off-the-shelf HP PC.
    Beer lover since 1968.
This discussion has been closed.

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