Managing Annuity Accounts in Quicken

williamspl · February 2023

How can I structure my quicken data for my multiple Annuity Accounts so they show as separate accounts on the Tax Schedule as income?

Right now they are shown as one total in the summary.

J_Mike · February 2023

Try this;
Create a unique Tag for each annuity.
Assign a unique Copy Number to each Tag; e.g., 1, 2, 3 etc.
Tag each distribution transaction with appropriate tag.

This should give you separate subtotals in the tax report.

williamspl · February 2023

Thanks for that feedback! But, how do you tag an annuity Account?

Quicken Premier Windows (20+ years)

J_Mike · February 2023

You assign the Tag to each distribution transaction.

SI assume you are recording periodic Transfers from each annuity account to checking (or other).
Assign the appropriate Tag to each transaction.

williamspl · February 2023

OK, Got that!

I seem to be having problems adding the Tag to multiple annuity account transactions.

Any advice?

Thanks!

J_Mike · February 2023

Are you using Find & Replace?

williamspl · February 2023

Sorry for all the questions!

I had not been using Find/Replace but when I tried to use it …

1. I was able to select a group of transactions.
2. However, since the Tag was on the lower split level of the transactions it would not let me change the Tag.

williamspl · February 2023

Hi J_Mike,

I decided to reach out to Q Customer Service for their advice.

After spending a lot of time with them in black holes they advised me that the transactions would have to be updated one at a time. Really!!

The rep did show me how to view all transactions via "All Transactions" at the top of the account column.

From there, I was able to find on my own that I could select and edit transactions and select multiple rows from there.

But, how I don't see how to get the Copy Numbers totals to shown in the Tax Schedule.

Any input would be appreciated.

J_Mike · February 2023

williamspl said:

Sorry for all the questions!

I had not been using Find/Replace but when I tried to use it …

1. I was able to select a group of transactions.
2. However, since the Tag was on the lower split level of the transactions it would not let me change the Tag.

Is there a unique field in the split entry - e.g., Category?
If so, use that info as the search criteria.
The matches you want to edit will be identified as Split entries.
You select the Split entries in the search results for editing .

Boatnmaniac · February 2023

@williamspl - In order to get most any transactions entered into the Tax Reports and Tax Planner they must meet some key requirements. If you provide some more information I might be able to help you get it set up correctly.

Do you have each of your Annuities set up in Quicken as tax deferred investment accounts? And are you tracking returns (dividends) in these accounts?

Or are you not tracking the Annuities as accounts in Quicken and are simply depositing the income from an outside source (the Annuities' payees) into a checking account?

Also, are your Annuity benefits payments being deposited individually in separate transactions or in a single transaction?

There is really not a right or wrong answer. It is a matter of preference, especially with regard to tracking Net Worth. But your answers will help to define how you should be setting up the deposit transactions so they are then captured properly in the Tax Reports and Tax Planner.

williamspl · February 2023

Hi Boatnmaniac,

1. Do you have each of your Annuities set up in Quicken as tax deferred investment accounts? YES

2. And are you tracking returns (dividends) in these accounts? YES

3. Or are you not tracking the Annuities as accounts in Quicken and are simply depositing the income from an outside source (the Annuities' payees) into a checking account? I am transferring the funds from the annuities to my checking account.

4. Also, are your Annuity benefits payments being deposited individually in separate transactions or in a single transaction? All as separate transactions.

Thanks for any input you can provide!

williamspl · February 2023

J_Mike,

Sorry, I did not understand your comment ...

Is there a unique field in the split entry - e.g., Category?
If so, use that info as the search criteria.
The matches you want to edit will be identified as Split entries.
You select the Split entries in the search results for editing .

Were you referring to the issue of tagging the transactions? If so, I go past that issue but cannot find how to get the copy numbers to show on the Tax Schedule report for each annuity. Thanks!

Boatnmaniac · February 2023

williamspl said:

Hi Boatnmaniac,

1. Do you have each of your Annuities set up in Quicken as tax deferred investment accounts? YES

2. And are you tracking returns (dividends) in these accounts? YES

3. Or are you not tracking the Annuities as accounts in Quicken and are simply depositing the income from an outside source (the Annuities' payees) into a checking account? I am transferring the funds from the annuities to my checking account.

4. Also, are your Annuity benefits payments being deposited individually in separate transactions or in a single transaction? All as separate transactions.

Thanks for any input you can provide!

Very good. One thing I would suggest is that you check the Tax Schedule information for each of those Annuity accounts to make sure they show Transfers out: 1099-R:Total pension taxable dist. This is the correct tax schedule to be used for Annuity distributions and it will help to ensure it shows up correctly in the Tax Reports as such.

Do you have tax withheld from the Annuity payments and if so, is it just Fed tax or is it both Fed and State tax? This will impact how the transfers to the checking account should be entered so that the full taxable distribution and the withheld tax are fully captured in the Tax Reports and in Tax Planner. Let me know and I can then assist you on this and then advise how this will all play out in the Tax Reports.

markus1957 · February 2023

FWIW, I set up my non-IRA annuity as a security. Payments are entered as return of capital and interest per the annuity schedule.

williamspl · February 2023

In my case I believe the distribution should be 1099R Total IRA Taxable distribution, not pension.

Do you have tax withheld from the Annuity payments Yes.

and if so, is it just Fed tax or is it both Fed and State tax? Just federal.

This will impact how the transfers to the checking account should be entered so that the full taxable distribution and the withheld tax are fully captured in the Tax Reports and in Tax Planner. Let me know and I can then assist you on this and then advise how this will all play out in the Tax Reports.

Boatnmaniac · February 2023

williamspl said:

In my case I believe the distribution should be 1099R Total IRA Taxable distribution, not pension.
Do you have tax withheld from the Annuity payments Yes.
and if so, is it just Fed tax or is it both Fed and State tax? Just federal.
This will impact how the transfers to the checking account should be entered so that the full taxable distribution and the withheld tax are fully captured in the Tax Reports and in Tax Planner. Let me know and I can then assist you on this and then advise how this will all play out in the Tax Reports.

Regarding the tax line item association for the Annuity Account: I am not a tax expert so I can't state for sure which tax line should be used for annuity distributions. I simply selected the "Total Pension Taxable Dist" option over the"Total IRA Taxable Distrib" option because of what I found in Quicken. Here is what I found in Quicken:

Regarding entering the distributions so they are properly captured in the Tax Reports and Tax Planner:

First, if you have not already done so, I would suggest that you create a new category called "Tax:Fed_Annuity Distrib" or something like that. For this category assign Tax Line item "1099-R:Pension federal tax withheld" to it....or if you prefer to go the IRA route, assign Tax Line item "1099-R:IRA federal tax withheld" to it.

1) ENTER THE NET DISTRIBUTION AMOUNT AS A DEPOSIT TRANSACTION IN THE RECEIVING ACCOUNT (not in the Annuity Account)....a positive number.

2) SPLIT THE CATEGORY:

1st Line of the Split: Enter the category as a Transfer from the Annuity Account for the gross distribution amount...a positive number.
2nd Line of the Split: Enter the Fed Tax Withheld category you created for the amount of the tax that is withheld...a negative number.
Total of the Lines: Must equal the net deposit amount of #1.

This deposit transaction will populate the Tax Schedule and Tax Summary reports as well as Tax Planner with the correct total taxable distribution amountS and will properly capture the withheld tax amountS.

You had requested that the Tax Schedule report shows the distributions by account. Unfortunately, Tax Schedule is not capable of doing this. You can, however, export the report to Excel and sort it how you wish to there.

The Tax Summary report will show them separated by account under "Transfers". I actually prefer using Tax Summary report over Tax Schedule report because of how Tax Summary displays the data in all sections of the report, not just with these distributions. Here is what a test of this Annuity distribution process looks like. The Annuity Account names are shaded in yellow...the transfer amounts are the total taxable amounts...withheld taxes are shown under Expenses.:

If you are going to be getting regular (monthly?) distributions from your IRAs, you can set up recurring Income Reminders for each of them as described above. Then you can manually enter or automatically enter the Income Reminders at the desired time on or before the scheduled distribution date(s). When your bank account later downloads the deposit transactions from them Quicken will match them to the Income Reminders you have entered.

Questions?

williamspl · February 2023

See attached.

I am getting the Tax Summary with the annuity accounts separated but the Tax Schedule does not have the annuity accounts details sorted by account.

Boatnmaniac · February 2023

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20341924#Comment_20341924

In my last post, that is what I said would happen. That is why I prefer using the Tax Summary report over the Tax Schedule report.

If you want the Tax Schedule report sorted by account you can export it to Excel and perform the sorting there.

If you wish, you can go to Product Ideas - Quicken for Windows and submit a Product Idea for this. I think many would like to see this…including me. Be sure to vote for the idea. The Quicken Development Team does review ideas that are submitted and the more users who vote for an idea the more likely it will be that they will at some point decide to add it to their development plan.

J_Mike · February 2023

You can get the Tax Schedule Report to display pesion or distribution subtotals by Payee using Tags.

Create a unique Tag for each Payee abd assign Copy #'s to each Tag.

I have two pension income streams and fet separate subrorals using this method.

Boatnmaniac · February 2023

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20341994#Comment_20341994

What do you mean by “assign Copy #'s to each tag”?

Unique Tags for each Payee (Annuity) alone won't do what you say is possible…at least not in my Test file. I'd like to better understand what you are doing differently than simply assigning a unique Tag to each Payee.

J_Mike · February 2023

In the create/edit tag window there is an option to assign a Copy # to a Tag.

Give each Tag a unique # ; e.g., 1, 2, …..

Boatnmaniac · February 2023

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20342020#Comment_20342020

Well, I'll be. It worked beautifully. I never new about the Copy # for Tags. Learned something new today. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks!

@williamspl - This is what I got in my Test file using the Tags with Copy #'s. Is this what you are wanting to see?

Tax Schedule Report_Subtotal by Tags with Copy Numbers (2023-02-24).png

J_Mike · February 2023

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20342028#Comment_20342028

😊 - Yes, a handy feature. I use it inseveral virvumdtances where I want to break down a given category by Payee; e.g., multiple accounts apying Interest Income.

williamspl · March 2023

Boatnmaniac and J_Mike,

Yours looks great! Just what I need.

I added the 4 digit Tags to the Transactions in each account and added a sign digit 1-9 to each tag.

Where did you add the tag to the payee?

See attached.

Thanks!

Boatnmaniac · March 2023

@williamspl - I went to Tools > Tag List which shows the Tags that have been created. Click on the appropriate Tag and then click on Edit for the appropriate Tag which will bring up a popup where the Copy number can be entered.

In my Test file I created Tags for Annuity 1 and Annuity 2. For Annuity 1 tag I assigned 1 as the Copy. For Annuity 2 tag I assigned 2 as the Copy.

Then I entered the Annuity 1 tag to both the gross distribution transactions and the Tax Withheld transactions for Annuity 1.

I then entered the Annuity 2 tag to both the gross distribution transactions and the Tax Withheld transactions for Annuity 2.

williamspl · March 2023

Boatnmaniac,

I think I got it now. Do you have to enter the tags for split transactions one at a time?

Thanks!

Boatnmaniac · March 2023

If you are using split categories (one for the gross taxable distribution and one for the withheld tax), each category in the split needs to have the tag entered for it.

Managing Annuity Accounts in Quicken

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