Troubleshooting Quicken: Canadian version may be filing incorrect returns

The latest version of Quicken for Canadian Mac users offered by Intuit is Quicken 2002. Aside from lacking the new functionality found in the current Quicken 2003 American Mac OS X release (with Quicken 2004 currently in beta testing), the older Canadian release may contain a serious flaw that could cause Canadians who use it to file incorrect tax returns. Essentially, Quicken 2002 incorrectly calculates the capital gains on the sale of securities such as stocks.

Michael Weyman describes the problem: "Quicken 2002 normally uses the First In First Out method of calculating the capital gains and adjusted cost base for a security. A tax accountant recently informed me that Canadians cannot use the First In First Out method. Instead, all shares of a security are seen as indistinguishable and a partial sale of a security does not change the adjusted cost base of that security. Unfortunately for Canadians, Quicken 2002 has no valid mechanism of calculating the capital gains and adjusted cost base."

Intuit Canada's technical support team corroborates the issue. They state that the root cause of the problem is linked to the fact that Intuit is still using the Quicken 2002 American engine for the Canadian product, and subsequently has not changed the capital gains calculation to reflect Canadian tax law.

Apparently there is no patch or workaround available, and users will have to wait for Quicken 2004 (which has no stated release date) for resolution.

Users calling Intuit Canada customer service are provided with the option to return the product for a full refund or continue using it with a partial refund.

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