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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 come up with a certain amount of cash, after also estimating the amount of income tax you'll need to pay on your gain. (If you know your tax bracket, an alternate method is to simply tell the Capital Gains Estimator which tax rates to use.)


Find cash by analyzing the results of your proposed sale

  1. Use the Capital Gains Estimator to create a sales scenario.
  2. View the impact of your proposed sales. Pay special attention to Net Proceeds from Proposed Sales. This will tell you how much cash you have after you put aside the estimated taxes.

Example

You might 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 1000 shares of stock in XYZ for $10 a share. It is now valued at $18 per share.

If you sell all the shares, the total proceeds would equal $9,750, but you would have to put aside $2,000 for taxes. You would have $7,750 to spend. That would be $1,750 more than you need. Use the Capital Gains Estimator to change the number of shares you sell. Selling 775 shares would give you $7,556 in total proceeds. You should put aside $1,550 for federal and state income taxes. That would leave you with $6,006 to spend on your new car, and you would still own 225 shares of XYZ stock.

Find cash by using What Should I Sell (only in Quicken Premier, Home & Business, and Rental Property)

The What Should I Sell component of the Capital Gains Estimator is designed to search 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, you could specify an amount of $3,000 and a goal of Balance my YTD Capital Gains. To use What Should I Sell, make sure the Capital Gains Estimator is set up with the correct scenario, accounts, tax rates, and applicable loss carryovers. Then choose What Should I Sell on the left side of the Estimator window and follow the on-screen instructions.

Learn more about the model used by What Should I Sell.