IRA RMD distributions

It can be tricky to record distributions such as RMDs from a tax deferred account to a taxable account in Quicken so that the tax implications are captured correctly.   

There are no built-in Categories for IRA tax withholding; you must set them up yourself. I use these:

• Tax Fed:Fed IRA WH with a tax line item of 1099-R:IRA federal tax withheld
• Tax State:State IRA WH with a tax line item of 1099-R:IRA state tax withheld

In the IRA, click on the gear at the top right and select Edit account details. Click on Tax Schedule and set Transfers out to "1099-R:Total IRA taxable distrib." If you don’t see the Tax Schedule button at the bottom of the Account Details dialog, click on View in the top menu and select “Tabs to show”. In the list of tabs, select Planning.

Enter one or more Sold transactions for the securities that were sold. This will put a cash balance in the account equal to the total amount of the distribution, including any taxes that were withheld.

If no taxes are withheld from the distribution, you can simply enter the distribution in the IRA as a transfer to the receiving account.

If taxes are withheld from the distribution, the process is more complicated because you must record the gross distribution as well as the withholding(s) in the receiving account. To do this, go to the receiving account and:

1)  Enter a Deposit transaction for the net amount of the RMD as a positive number.

2)  Split the Category:

• Line 1 of the split:  Category = the IRA account name in [square brackets] for the gross amount as a positive number. This will create a transfer from the IRA.
• Line 2 of the split:  Category = the Fed tax withholding category that you use, as a negative number.
• Line 3 of the split:  Category = the State tax withholding category that you use, as a negative number.
• Total of the split:  Must equal the net amount of the deposit.

If the deposit is made to a banking account between Jan. 1 and April 15, you will see a dialog titled “Confirm Your Contribution Tax Year”, even though this is a distribution and not a contribution. Select the current year, not the default of the previous year, and click on OK. This seems to be a bug.

If you receive the distributions regularly, you can save repeated manual entry by setting up this transaction as an Income Reminder.

If taxes were withheld, you must delete or not accept any downloaded transactions in the IRA for the net distribution and the withholding.

With this setup, the taxable income will be shown in the Tax Planner and the “1099-R Total IRA Taxable distrib.” and any tax withholding in the withholding sections of the Tax Schedule report.

To see the IRA distribution as income in other reports, customize the report to include the taxable receiving account but not the IRA. On the Advanced customization tab, next to Transfers select Exclude internal. The distributions from the IRA should appear in the Income section of the report as FROM <the IRA account name>

I would think you need to enter it as a regular IRA distribution with a sell transaction because you will need to enter it in the taxable account as a buy with the new cost value you got for it. Especially since it is for the RMD. You can’t roll over a RMD, you get the money (or shares) and have to buy it separately in the regular account.

@Glen Raggio No, you do not have to remember. You need to edit ACCOUNT details for the IRA account, the Tax Schedule button.

Make the Transfers From selection as shown. Withdrawals from the IRA account to a taxable account will show up as income in Tax planner and tax schedule reports. That is how the tax line assignment gets made. It is not through a transaction category. In an Income/Expense report, it will show up in the income section as a transfer from the IRA account.

It sounds to me as if you have created an RMD category and want to use that. Quicken isn't designed to do that.