tax line item (e.g. for medical insurance premium via COBRA)

[Sam Smith]

I am using Quicken 2004 Premier and I am somewhat frustrated with the
product when it comes to tax line items.

In particular, quicken seems to have no flexibility in specifying tax
line items that it has not thought of.

Here is an example that concerns me. When I left my former employer in
late 2003, I continued on in their health insurance program (i.e.
COBRA). From my reading of the IRS instructions, I believe that these
health insurance premiums (since I am now paying the full amount out of
my own money) are tax deductible. Depending on your situation, they
can either be claimed on line 31 of your 1040 as a Self-Employed Health
Insurance Deduction, or they can be claimed on schedule A as a medical
expense. Please educate me here if I am wrong here.

When I set up a new category in quicken for this (a subcategory of
Insurance:Medical Insurance that I call COBRA), there was a place in
the dialog box to enter the tax line item. Unfortunately, none of the
choices that the program lists by default (in either standard or
extended list) seems to be the choice that I need. I ended up
selecting as the tax line item schedule A:Medical travel and lodging.
This is clearly inaccurate, but is the closest thing that I could find.

Is there a better way that I should have handled this?

Is there a way in Quicken to add to the tax line item list? (And it
has to work with Turbo Tax, since that is what I am using to do my
taxes.)

Or for this situation, would it have been better to not give any tax
line item at all? From what I gather from this posting
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.comp.software.financial.quicken/browse_thread/thread/a5fc31470c6df15b/16b966cfbd0b1f3a?q=medical+premium#16b966cfbd0b1f3a

at least with older versions of TurboTax, it will ask you in your
interview when doing your schedule C about your insurance and then put
the amount in the proper place (as a Self-Employed Health Insurance
Deduction or on schedule A as a medical expense).

[JMC]

Have been thru this same frustrating experience recently. Am not a tax
expert but I treated the premiums as deductible - Sched A in my case.

Assigned tax line item Sched A:Doctors, dentists and hospitals for
mine. Regardless of choice it all winds up on Line 1 of Sched A but is
on the wrong line of the Sched A worksheet. A bit confusing if you need
to dig back thru previous returns.

Would definitely assign a tax line item - that way you can at least get
the correct totals in a Tax Summary report.

I run a my own Medical Expenses report in QW - with subtotals by
category and then use this report to edit the Sched A worksheet to get
everything on the right lines and keep a clean history.

A lot of extra effort to do what it seems could be done with the proper
tax lines in QW - Second your motion for more choices in tax line
assignments.

[Dick Weaver]

yhbrent@yahoo.com wrote: I am using Quicken 2004 Premier and I am somewhat frustrated with the product when it comes to tax line items. In particular, quicken seems to have no flexibility in specifying tax line items that it has not thought of.

Using Quicken for Windows version 4 (1994) the definition of tax lines
is an editable file, TAX.SCD. Might check the version you are using for
that same file. Possibly you need to upgrade to Windows verions 4!

btw - if you find the file, you have to derive each fields meaning.

dick w

[Guest]

>Using Quicken for Windows version 4 (1994) the definition of tax linesis an editable file, TAX.SCD.

That file is still present even in Quicken 2004.

The problem with hand editing it is twofold. First, here are the first
several lines from that file:


3 SNN <None>
256 SNN Form 1040
258 LNN Sick pay or disability pay
269 LNN Taxable fringe benefits
261 LNN Alimony received
266 LNN Social Security income, self
611 LNN Fed tax w/h, Soc. Sec.,self
483 LNN Social Security inc., spouse


Clearly, the initial number on each line (3, 256, ...) is some sort of
code that they use; I have NO idea what value to use.

Second, I have no idea what the SNN versus LNN stuff means and what
value to use.

I do not want to corrupt that file and possible crash the program when
it tries to parse it, so I have to know that what I am putting in is
correct first.

Anybody from Intuit read this newsgroup--would LOVE to hear your
response.

[Guest]

JM wrote:
Assigned tax line item Sched A:Doctors, dentists and hospitals formine. Regardless of choice it all winds up on Line 1 of Sched A but ison the wrong line of the Sched A worksheet.

I have now decided that this is probably wrong to do: it does NOT all
end up on sched A if you are self employed. Instead, since it can end
up as a straight income deduction on your 1040 if your business was
profitable, it is much better to claim it there then on the sched A
where you only can claim medical expenses once they exceed 7% or so of
your income, right?

[JMC]

Would agree with you for your case. In my case I wasn't self-employed -
retired early - before medicare eligibility.

Have been looking at the TAX.SCD file and trying to make sense of it -
pasted it into Excel. Appears the items are generally numbered
sequentially - with no relation to tax sched or form.

The same file is also in the TTax directory - appears to be identical
from a cursory examination.

Probably not future here - how does an item number get assigned to a
particular entry in a worksheet/schedule/form??




yhbrent@yahoo.com wrote: JM wrote:Assigned tax line item Sched A:Doctors, dentists and hospitals formine. Regardless of choice it all winds up on Line 1 of Sched A but
ison the wrong line of the Sched A worksheet. I have now decided that this is probably wrong to do: it does NOT all end up on sched A if you are self employed. Instead, since it can
end up as a straight income deduction on your 1040 if your business was profitable, it is much better to claim it there then on the sched A where you only can claim medical expenses once they exceed 7% or so
of your income, right?

[Bob Weissman]

In article <1110828825.136551.25060@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
yhbrent@yahoo.com <brentboyer@gmail.com> wrote:JM wrote:Assigned tax line item Sched A:Doctors, dentists and hospitals formine. Regardless of choice it all winds up on Line 1 of Sched A but ison the wrong line of the Sched A worksheet.I have now decided that this is probably wrong to do: it does NOT allend up on sched A if you are self employed. Instead, since it can endup as a straight income deduction on your 1040 if your business wasprofitable, it is much better to claim it there then on the sched Awhere you only can claim medical expenses once they exceed 7% or so ofyour income, right?

Right. But if you are not self-employed (e.g., retired or otherwise
unemployed), then Quicken's instructions do, in fact, tell you which
line item to use. The little description of "Schedule A:Doctors,
dentists, hospitals" says:

Deductible medical service fees paid to doctors, dentists, surgeons; the
cost of hospitalization and related fees (lab, therapy, etc.); medical
insurance premiums paid. Only deduct actual out-of-pocket expenses less
reimbursements. See IRS Pub 502

- Bob

[Doug Ellice]

yhbrent@yahoo.com wrote: I am using Quicken 2004 Premier and I am somewhat frustrated with the product when it comes to tax line items. In particular, quicken seems to have no flexibility in specifying tax line items that it has not thought of.

I agree. I created specific tax-line items in my Category List and gave
them 1040-related descritions:


Clinic & Hospital Fees Sched A, Line 4 Schedule A:Doctors, dentists,
hospitals

Doctors, Dentists Fees Sched A, Line 3 Schedule A:Doctors, dentists,
hospitals

Eyeglasses & Contacts Sched A, Line 7 Schedule A:Doctors, dentists,
hospitals

Etc. It is disgraceful that Quicken hasn't perfected the assignment of
very specific tax form line item assignments in the program. They tout
the inter-operability of Quicken and TurboTax, but there is a lot that
remains undone in this area.
Doug