If you've set up your data in the Tax Planner, the Capital Gains Estimator can help you figure out how many shares of a security to sell in order to raise a certain amount of cash, after estimating the income tax you'll need to pay on your gain. If you know your tax bracket, you can also tell the Capital Gains Estimator which tax rates to use directly.
Find cash by analyzing the results of your proposed sale
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Use the Capital Gains Estimator to create a sales scenario.
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View the impact of your proposed sales. The Net Proceeds from Proposed Sales field shows how much cash you have after you set aside the estimated taxes.
Example
You want to put a $6,000 down payment on a new car. You open the Capital Gains Estimator and indicate that you want to use the 15 percent/10 percent federal capital gains tax rates and 10 percent for state income tax. Six months ago you purchased 1,000 shares of stock in XYZ for $10 a share, and the stock is now valued at $18 per share.
If you sell all the shares, the total proceeds would equal $9,750, but you would need to set aside $2,000 for taxes, leaving $7,750 to spend -- $1,750 more than you need. To get closer to your target, use the Capital Gains Estimator to adjust the number of shares you sell.
Selling 775 shares would give you $7,556 in total proceeds. After setting aside $1,550 for federal and state income taxes, you would have $6,006 for your down payment and still hold 225 shares of XYZ stock.
Find cash by using What Should I Sell
Note: This feature is available in Quicken Premier and Quicken Business & Personal only.
The What Should I Sell component of the Capital Gains Estimator searches your portfolio for the best possible combination of securities to meet sales criteria you specify. These criteria consist of a dollar amount and a goal -- for example, an amount of $3,000 and a goal of Balance my YTD Capital Gains.
To use What Should I Sell, first make sure the Capital Gains Estimator is set up with the correct scenario, accounts, tax rates, and applicable loss carryovers. See How do I use the Capital Gains Estimator? for details. Then choose What Should I Sell on the left side of the Estimator window and follow the on-screen instructions. For more information, see How do I use the What Should I Sell component of the Capital Gains Estimator?