Overview
The Tax Planner helps you plan your quarterly estimated tax payments. It’s useful for business owners or sole proprietors to understand what they may owe, especially if their business situation has changed. Let Quicken Business & Personal make planning your estimated taxes easier.
Note: The Tax Planner is for estimates only and should not be used for official tax filing.
How it Works
The Tax Planner guides you through setup by having you:
Choose your filing status
Enter your expected W-2 income
Select deductions
Choose the account you’ll use to pay taxes
Quicken Business & Personal then calculates and displays your estimated tax payments. These payments appear as reminders, generated from a quarterly recurring series.
You can manage each reminder by:
Linking it to a downloaded transaction
Using it to create a manual transaction
Dismissing it if it’s not needed
You can also edit any reminder or the recurring series directly in the Tax Planner.
Once setup is complete, the Tax Planner will display:
Tax Year - see the tax year you're viewing and change it if needed, as well as see your estimated annual taxes for the year
Summary – progresses from Q1 to Q2 and so on, as quarterly payment reminders are marked as paid
Payments & Reminders – lists the estimated payment reminders for each quarter
Taxable Business Profit – shows your taxable profit to date, along with your projected remaining profit
Personal Income & Tax Profile – lets you view and edit your filing information
Setting Up the Tax Planner
When you first open the Tax Planner in Quicken Business & Personal, you’ll be guided through the setup process.
Move your cursor over the left panel and click Tax Planner.
Click the Get Started button and then click Got It.
Choose your Filing Status.
If you have W-2 income (wages from an employer), click Yes, then enter your Annual W-2 income.
Enter your Annual federal withholding.
If you are 65 years or older, or legally blind, select the box next to each option that applies.
Click Continue.
Choose either Basic tracking or Advanced tracking.
If you choose Advanced tracking, select the Account you expect to use for your estimated payments.
Click Finish.
Once setup is complete, the Tax Planner will display:
Tax year: You can view your current tax planner. If you have created planners in previous years, you can also access those if needed.
Summary: Updates from Q1 to Q2 and beyond as quarterly payment reminders are marked as paid.
Payments & Reminders: Lists the estimated payment reminders for each quarter.
How we calculate:
Tax Planner estimates your annual taxes using three main pieces of information.
Personal Income: Includes any additional income you’ve entered, such as W-2 wages or investment earnings.
Tax Profile: including your filing status and any deductions you’ve selected.
Taxable Business Profit: based on your business income and deductible expenses that are categorized with tax line items.
Using all of this information, Tax Planner determines your total estimated tax for the year, subtracts any payments you’ve already made, and then divides the remaining balance to estimate what you should pay each quarter.
Taxable Business Profit: Shows your taxable profit to date, along with your projected remaining profit.
Personal Income & Tax Profile: Lets you view and edit your filing information.
Marking Payments as Paid
After your quarterly estimated tax payment reminders appear for the current year, mark each one as paid when you make the payment. You can do this by linking the reminder to the payment transaction or by creating a manual transaction from the reminder. If you no longer need the reminder, you can dismiss it.
Find the payment reminder and click the three dots at the end.
Click Link to transaction.
Select the transaction in the list.
Click Link.
Note: Creating a manual transaction from the estimated tax payment reminder can only be done per quarter from the Summary section. To do so, click the arrow to the right of the Mark As Paid button, and then click Add Manual Transaction.
Editing Payment Reminders
You can easily edit any estimated tax payment reminder to change the date or amount, or to exclude it from Reports and/or the Spending Plan.
Find the payment reminder and click the three dots at the end.
Click Edit Reminder.
Make the necessary changes, then click Update when you’re finished.
Dismissing Payment Reminders
If any estimated tax payment reminders are no longer needed, you can easily dismiss them.
Find the payment reminder and click the three dots at the end.
Click Dismiss Reminder.
Click Dismiss Reminder to confirm.
Customize Your Taxable Business Profit
You can customize your income and deductible expense estimates for the rest of the year directly from the Taxable Business Profit card. If needed, you can switch back to the default estimates at any time by using the Projected Profit toggle.
From the Taxable Business Profit card, click Edit.
Turn off the Projected Profit toggle, then click Confirm.
On the Rest of year row, click the amount shown for Income and/or Deductible
Expenses.
Enter the custom amount, then click Update.
Edit your Personal Income & Tax Profile
If your filing details change, you can update them at any time.
From the Personal Income & Tax Profile card, click Edit.
Make the necessary changes, then click Update when you’re finished.
If you're looking for steps specific to the mobile app, please see our article Using Tax Planner in the mobile app.
If you have any questions about Quicken Simplifi, our support team is here to help.