Add the SSA-1099 to the list of tax forms

Augie&Me

I realize that I may not be in Simplifi's target demographic but being able to select the SSA-1099 tax form from the list of Tax Forms would be handy. Perhaps one day the SSA-1099 Tax form could be added. Thank you.

RobWilk

No tax forms are supported right now, this is not tax software. Instead the tax report is used to take data from your register and tell you which line on your tax forms you enter that information — you never enter your own ssa-1099 so you would never fill in the ssa-1099 so this isn't a useful feature.

I am on SSDI, and many others here are on social security income too.

DryHeat

@RobWilk "you never enter your own ssa-1099 so you would never fill in the ssa-1099 so this isn't a useful feature."

I don't see it that way. I think the SSA-1099 works the same way as many of the other Tax Forms that are already available in QS.

For example, QS allows us to associate a Tax-Related income Category to a Tax Form like the 1099-R, 1099-G, and 1099-MISC, and to specify that the income in that Category is destined for a particular Tax Line Item on that form.

For example, I have a particular tax-related income category that is linked to tax form 1099-MISC and tax line item Royalties. I don't ever fill in the 1099-MISC reporting that income. It is sent to me by the entity that pays me the royalty. That's exactly how the SSA-1099 works.

Because the SSA-1099 is so commonly received, it should be included in the list of available forms.

It probably would be if any of the development team were over 67. 😉

RobWilk

There are no tax forms, there are tax line items. It does not generate any forms or do any calculations based on forms. IT is not tax software. As it stands, you can flag social security income that is in your dataset as social security income for the 1040 form:

Again, the SSA-1099 comes from social security, you do not fill it out yourself. based on your own data.

DryHeat

@RobWilk

»"Again, the SSA-1099 comes from social security, you do not fill it out yourself. based on your own data."

I don't fill out my 1099-MISC form myself either, yet it is included in the QS Tax Forms list.

»"There are no Tax Forms."

No, but there is a list of Tax Forms. And when @Augie&Me said he wanted to "select the SSA-1099 tax form from the list of Tax Forms," I understood him to be referring to the list that pops up in the Tax Info window when you edit a Category.

So, should we have an SSA-1099? I think so.

Right now you can only tag SS Income as "Form 1040, Social Security Income, Self," a 1040 line that represents your gross benefit amount (your SSA benefit with some adjustments). But that doesn't capture all the data on an SSA-1099, which includes deductions for such things as federal tax withholding and Medicare premiums.

QS handles other 1099 forms, like 1099-MISC, by allowing you to associate the various amounts on the 1099-MISC with different line items (like "royalties" or "federal tax withheld"). QS doesn't force you to just tag the gross (or net) amount as "Form 1040: Additional income from Schedule 1, line 10."

If QS had a SSA-1099, we could capture all the data from the SSA-1099, as we do for other 1099s. I would prefer that.

DannyB

@Augie&Me

You can add your SSA income in the new Tax feature this way:

• Go to "Settings."
• Click on "Categories & tags."
• Either create a new income category for your SSA income or click on the 3-dot menu for an existing SSA income category and select "Edit."
• Turn on "Tax Related."
• In the "Tax Form" field select "Form 1040" from the drop-down list.
• In the "Tax ling item" field select "Social Security income, self" or "Social Security income, spouse" from the drop-down list.
• This will make this income reportable in the Quicken Simplifi Tax report screen.

Hope that helps.

DryHeat

@DannyB

I'm familiar with that approach. But there is other information, in addition to income, that shows up on a SSA-1099.

In a way, each SS payment is like a paycheck. You deposit a net amount, but that net amount is not (usually) the same as your benefit amount. It's the result of subtracting taxes, Medicare payments, and sometimes other things. You get a breakout on your SSA-1099 the next year. I know the breakout of my SS payments and I currently enter them into QS in the same detailed way that I do a paycheck.

I also enter oil royalty payments like that — broken down into gross royalties, fed/stat taxes, etc. But in QS I'm able to connect those to the 1099-MISC form. When I look at the tax report, that makes it easy to compare the amounts on the 1099-MISCs that I eventually get with what happened during the year. I'd like to be able to do that with SS payments as well.

I guess we don't really "need" any of these 1099s. We could just figure out which line on the 1040 the numbers eventually end up on and enter it that way (which is what is currently being done with SS payments). But for me, it would be better if QS handled SSA-1099s the way it handles other common 1099s. I don't know why they chose not to do that. Is there a reason?

RobWilk

Some people DO fill out their own 1099-misc, and those are business owners…. They send those out.

Government is the only one to fill out an SSA-1099

DryHeat

@RobWilk "Some people DO fill out their own 1099-misc, and those are business owners… They send those out."

I'm not sure I get your point. Business owners also send out forms W-2, W-2G, 1099-G, 1099-MISC, etc., all of which can currently be selected in the Tax Form-Tax line item list. The SSA-1099 works exactly the same way … the government sends it out and I receive it.

• Perhaps you are thinking that Tax Form 1099-MISC in QS represents a 1099-MISC that the QS user is going to send out to someone else.
• If so, that's not correct. The Tax Form and its Tax line items represent a 1099-MISC that the QS user receives. (You can check that on the Personal Taxes report, where transactions marked as "1099-MISC: Royalties" show up as income, not expense.)

I see no reason why QS couldn't handle the SSA-1099 exactly the same way QS handles a 1099-MISC.

I hope people will realize that and vote for this.

RobWilk

I'm thinking that the information it gives you is so you can fill out your tax forms, and you don't fill out an SSA-1099 unless you are the social security administration.

RobWilk

btw.. My point was business owners who use Simplifi/qbp fill out those forms, they are in Simplifi for the business owners.. They do not fill out ssa forms.

DryHeat

@RobWilk "I'm thinking that the information it gives you is so you can fill out your tax forms, and you don't fill out an SSA-1099"

Some of the Tax Forms included in QS work exactly like you say. Associating a Category with Schedule A : Cash charity contributions, for example, enables you to generate a report showing the amount you will later enter on form Schedule A at Line 5b.

But other Tax Forms included in QS can serve a different purpose. For example, associating a Category with W-2 : Salary or wages, self, enables you to generate a report showing the amount you expect to see on the W-2 your employer sends you.

• Think about it… if the W-2 in QS were intended for an employer filling out a W-2 for an employee, these line items would not be labeled Salary or wages, self and Salary or wages, spouse. The employer in QBP would likely use Schedule C: Wages paid.

The 1099-MISC forms in QS can work like the W-2. They allow you to mark transactions during the year to compare against the 1099-MISC you will receive after the year closes.

The SSA-1099 form in QS would work exactly the same way. It would help you collect the information about benefit amount, withheld taxes, Medicare payments, repaid benefits, etc. each month to compare against the SSA-1099 you will receive from the government.

Sadly, I am afraid this long and somewhat confusing conversation may depress the vote for adding this simple feature.

SRC54

I hesitate to wade in here, but that never has stopped me before. 😀

When this feature was added a few months ago, I initially looked for the SSA-1099 also and was surprised not to find it, but then saw that it went with the 1040 form. I went to Quicken Classic, which I've used for much longer time (I had set this up in 2009) and unsurprisingly, it's the same in Classic as Simplifi. It's associated with the 1040 form. There is a W-2 and 1099-R (as y'all pointed out), but 1099-INT and 1099-DIV are associated with the form Schedule B. There must be some logic to this although I don't see it exactly. W-2s have to be included with your tax return so they have a life of their own whereas 1099s are just reminders that the IRS knows about this income and don't forget to include it? Maybe this made it easier to integrate the Tax Report with TurboTax (back when everything was Intuit)?

As for how I use (and maybe other users), I initially use the Tax Report (from Classic) to get a head start on my taxes in December and then as the W-2s and 1099s come in, I double check the numbers. If I've done my accounting right, they will be the same. (However, I find that my SSA-1099 is sometimes about $1 off. I think this may have to do with the fact that SSA only pays even dollars and not cents, but they calculate the cents on the 1099-SSA? Anyhow, I go with the SSA-1099 on my income tax return.) W-2s would often be a bit different too as there was a Cafeteria Plan and so different taxable amounts for Federal and State.

Years ago when I used Classic and TurboTax in tandem, I would import the tax report (and I think for a while TaxAct supported that import as well), but I got away from doing it because I had to edit the W-2s and other things so much, and switched to less expensive tax apps that didn't support the import. It was simpler just to enter everything manually so I used the Tax Report to make sure I didn't forget any deductions.

Now that the Standard Deduction is so high for the Feds anyhow, I don't get to deduct anything, not even charity. But it is still useful for the State where these deductions still work. (Now that my wife is retired, we shouldn't have to pay State Income Tax in Alabama any longer unless we really make a killing on investments. Doubtful!)

The other information on the SSA-1099 for me are Medicare premiums. I entered that into Freetaxusa but it didn't even transfer to Schedule A. I had it on my Tax Reports as Medical Expenses, so I added it from there, but, of course, it was only deductible if I had enough medical expenses, which I didn't. It didn't even help with State taxes as they follow the Federal policy.

Anyhow, I found the discussion interesting. I figure there is a reason they don't include all the individual 1099 forms in the tax report and do it the way they do. Like @DannyB I would love to know why.

DryHeat

@SRC54 "I figure there is a reason they don't include all the individual 1099 forms in the tax report and do it the way they do."

I think QS included 1099-MISC and didn't include SSA-1099 because the programmers who put together the Tax Form list:

• have done contract/consulting work (and so have received multiple 1099-MISCs)
• but are not in their late 60s (and so have never received a single SSA-1099).

😆👴😉👵😴

(BTW, when I enter my oil royalty 1099-MISCs into my tax program, the info goes to Schedule E, not Form 1040. I think it can sometimes go either way, but in certain circumstances — like claiming depletion allowance — it has to go to Schedule E.)