You can use Quicken to simplify the preparation of your federal income tax return. For this, you just need to assign Tax Line items to your Quicken categories and categorize your transactions throughout the year. Quicken will maintain the tax reports you need.

Track your tax-related transactions

Many categories in Quicken are linked to Tax Line items. These line items come from the latest Federal Tax code. Categories associated with the Tax Line item are used to populate the Tax Summary report (and when exporting you tax report to TurboTax).

For example, if you're using the Quicken category Gifts & Donations: Charity, all the transactions with this category are tracked and automatically mapped to federal form Schedule A: Cash charity contributions.

In addition to the tax-related categories that come pre-populated in Quicken, you can assign a specific, Federal Tax Line item to any category or subcategory--including any custom categories you have created.

Assign Tax Line items to categories

To assign Tax Line items to categories:

1. In Quicken, choose Window menu > Categories. The Categories window is displayed.
   
2. Click the Edit icon.
3. Select the category to which you want to assign a Tax Line item.
4. Select the Tax related checkbox. A list of all tax schedules and forms is displayed below.
5. Select the desired item to view the detailed description.
6. Select the Tax Form/Schedule and Tax Line you want to assign to the category.
7. Click Save. Quicken uses this information to create a Tax Schedule report and for export to TurboTax or any other tax software.