Real quick -- did people use MEM to prepare for the medical-expense tax deduction?
Did it work well? Not well? Was it clear? Did it cover everything you wanted?
(And were you ahead of me, getting your taxes done before 4/17? Never mind that one...)
We built a quick explanation but I'd like to hear how it worked in practice.
I also noticed that TurboTax advised several different input fields for the medical-expense tax deduction -- probably quite useful for people who didn't have MEM to give them a bottom line dollar-and-mileage figure. (But then, I'm biased.)
And was it obvious that you could get MEM to give you mileage for Jan-Aug and Sep-Dec for the different mileage rates?
Anybody using MEM for *quarterly* med-expense tax deduction?
Thanks/regards,
Bruce
P.S. Am heading out to a family wedding in Ohio, so I won't be checking the forums for a few days.
Re: did you use MEM for taxes? Apr 28, 2006 02:44 am
Yes and No.
Yes, I ran the reports, but they were not accurate. I had to do some revisions...
... FSA ran out in the middle of a claim, so that claim did not show the remaining tax deductible amount in the tax report
... I had to account for FSA reimbursed amounts that basically disappeared (my payments amounts) when I got additional money reimbursed from a second insurance and reduce the tax deductible amounts on subsequent claims that would have been covered by those same FSA dollars
... I had to calculate mileage both from the tax deductible report and from the FSA reimbursed (I don't remember exactly how I went back to calculate those miles, they don't show on the FSA reimbursed report) because FSA did not reimburse me for the mileage even though the claim dollars were reimbursed.
So, I did use the reports to compare to what my medical categories in Quicken told me and I tried to make sure everything was accounted for both from Quicken Financial and QMEM. Then I used data from both sources to plug into my taxes (TTAX).
Re: did you use MEM for taxes? Apr 28, 2006 02:44 am
Bruce,
Yes. I used MEM reports for tax preparation and found them very accurate and helpful. I used Quicken reports as a "second opinion" but generally found MEM reports to be more effective. I also found the MEM tax reports to be more intuitive.
Mileage has always been a pain to track. Having "built-in" mileage for each office visit, drug store run, etc. made things much easier. In a few instances, I had to do a little playing around if there were two doctor visits or a doctor and lab entry on the same trip ... but that was minor. This year I vow to catch those on data entry.
And yes. It was easy to generate reports for the Jan-Aug and Sep-Dec periods for the mileage rate change. No problem there.
Bottom line ... I found MEM to be a very effective tax tool. And I probably did beat you with the electronic filing date ... but I owed a little bit and the check didn't go out until the last possible moment. :-)
Re: did you use MEM for taxes? Apr 28, 2006 02:44 am
I use QMEM to provide the supporting detail (for my files) to go along with the credit card expense recorded in Quicken H&B.
The mileage tracker in QMEM is also quite useful. On a monthly basis, I record a "QMEM Summary Mileage" in H&B's mileage tracker (which also has my business and charitable mileage).
I also file Quarterly Estimated Taxes (both my wife & I are self-employed) ... so the duplicate posting to Q & QMEM gets extensive ... that's one of the BIG reasons that I'd like to see QMEM enabled to send payment data to Q.
db
THINK IT THRU! Have you explained your issue so that someone who knows nothing about you, or YOUR Quicken setup, can understand what your issue is? Are you using standard Quicken terminology, particularly with respect to FILES, ACCOUNTS and CATEGORIES?
Re: did you use MEM for taxes? Apr 28, 2006 02:44 am
No - didn't use it for our '05 taxes, but may for '06. We've been lucky to have great coverage over the past 11 yrs, despite the trying task of juggling a ton of claims. With my new job, we're being hit w/ two deductibles/OOP's this year. Plus the new insurance has higher OOP's than our old one.
Our primary need for QMEM was & still is a system to keep all of our claims straight, make sure we're paid what we're owed & that each claim is closed. Not being a Quicken user, I'm not interested in having the products interact. If some info naturally integrates fine. But I hope the MEM project mgt team doesn't spend much time forcing the issue at the expense of the primary goals of MEM. IMO, Q & QMEM serve different purposes. (Besides, I don't have the time to devote to keeping up with both software programs plus work & family)
Deductible rate for medical mileage in 2007 Nov 01, 2006 01:30 pm
Hot off the <url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061101/ap_on_go_ot/irs_mileage_rate>press</url>: the IRS has announced that for 2007, the rate at which you can deduct mileage for medical expenses will be 20 cents per mile (up from 18 cents in 2006).
This is so "hot" that I couldn't find an official statement on the IRS website yet. (You heard it here first.) (Alright, I admit, you can't really do anything with it for a couple months minimum...)
As always, check out the IRS's website (including for example <url=http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc502.html>this page</url> on Medical and Dental Expenses), consult your tax advisor etc etc etc. (As that page states, You may deduct only the amount by which your total medical care expenses for the year exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. You do this calculation on Form 1040 Schedule A in computing the amount deductible. )
Regards,
Bruce
P.S. Any tips for people who might be trying to take the deduction?
rs_mileage_rate>press</url>: the IRS has announced
that for 2007, the rate at which you can deduct
mileage for medical expenses will be 20 cents per
mile (up from 18 cents in 2006).
This is so "hot" that I couldn't find an official
statement on the IRS website yet. (You heard it here
first.) (Alright, I admit, you can't really do
anything with it for a couple months minimum...)
As always, check out the IRS's website (including for
example
<url=http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc502.html>this
page</url> on Medical and Dental Expenses), consult
your tax advisor etc etc etc. (As that page states,
You may deduct only the amount by which your total
medical care expenses for the year exceed 7.5% of
your adjusted gross income. You do this calculation
on Form 1040 Schedule A in computing the amount
deductible. )
Regards,
Bruce
P.S. Any tips for people who might be trying to take
the deduction?
Thanks for the heads up, Bruce. I assume you're talking about the 2007 tax year and will impact returns due by April 15, 2008. Every little bit helps. :8}
Concerning tips for taking the medical deduction ... it seems to be nothing more than a math exercise. Use a good medical expense management program ( ?:| ) to accurately track expenses ... and then see if it exceeds the adjusted gross income threshold.
This post is about: Quicken Medical Expense Manager V2 2008
Bruce,
I have a question regarding the issue with TurboTax and several different input fields. It would be an awful lot of work for me to take MEM's tax deduction report and extract a total for each of TurboTax's different categories of medical expenses.
What does Intuit recommend as the way to input the information that MEM reports into TurboTax? Should I just enter blanks for all the categories and then take the total from MEM's tax deduction report and enter that as one amount under TurboTax's "other" medical expense category?
This post is about: Quicken Medical Expense Manager V2 2008
Yes used reports for both myself and wife. Account was overjoyed. Mileage is the only thing to keep an eye on when different services received at same clinic.
