How to track tax payments and refunds

Tracking your tax payments accurately helps you prepare for tax season and ensures your reports reflect deductible expenses correctly. In Quicken, you can do this by assigning the right categories and tax lines to federal, state, and local tax transactions. This includes payments made during filing, taxes withheld from paychecks, estimated payments, and refunds.

Track tax payments made when filing

Some tax payments are deductible, while others are not. Use the table below to determine how to track each payment type.

Tax type	Deductible?	Category name	Tax line assignment
Federal	No	Fed Tax Paid	Leave the Tax-related checkbox cleared and the Tax line item field blank
State	Yes	State Taxes	Schedule A: State income taxes
Local	Yes	Local Taxes	Schedule A: Local income taxes

Track income taxes withheld from your salary

Income taxes withheld from your paycheck are deductible, but they must be categorized differently from taxes paid at filing.

State withholding

Use the Tax:State or Tax Spouse:State category.
Assign it to W-2: State tax withheld, self or W-2: State tax withheld, spouse, as appropriate.

Local withholding

Use the Tax:Local or Tax Spouse:Local category.
Assign it to W-2: Local tax withheld, self or W-2: Local tax withheld, spouse, as appropriate.

Track estimated tax payments

If you make quarterly estimated payments, you can track them using dedicated categories linked to IRS tax lines.

Federal estimated taxes

Create a category called Fed Est Tax.
Assign it to Form 1040: Federal estimated tax, qrtrly.
Use this category when entering your quarterly payments.

These payments appear in the Tax Schedule report and transfer to the Tax Payments worksheet when you export to tax software.

If you paid your fourth-quarter installment after December 31, you may need to enter it manually in your tax software.

State estimated taxes

Create a category called State Est Tax.
Assign it to Schedule A: State estimated tax, qrtrly.
Use this category for each quarterly state tax payment.

These payments also appear in the Tax Schedule report and are included when exporting your data.

Track tax refunds

Refunds should be recorded using income categories, with tax-related settings adjusted based on whether the refund is taxable.

Refund type	Taxable?	Category name	Tax line assignment
Federal	No	Fed Tax Refund	Leave the Tax-related checkbox cleared and the Tax line item field blank
State	Yes, if you itemized last year	Tax Refund	Use the built-in category
Local	Yes, if you itemized last year	Local Tax Refund	Form 1099-G: State and local tax refunds