The Tax/Cash Form names can have any combination of letters and numbers up to 50 characters in length.
You could simply use the client's last name. If you are going to have more than one tax form for a client, you might want to call them Jones1, Jones2, Jones3.
Some MasterPlan users do not delete old tax forms, so they might have Jones92, Jones93, and even Jones951 for the first form of 1995. Other planners keep only one form per client and update that one each year. Choose your form names based on how many forms you plan to have for each client, and according to the system that is consistent and logical to you.
A creative way to run what-if scenarios (without entering what-if sells, buys, and refinances) is to create multiple Tax/Cash Forms for a single client.
First create the two forms.
Then, on the EditClient | Projection Assumptions Tab, assign the present form to the client by selecting its name from the drop-down list as the Baseline Tax/Cash Form.
Assign the What-If form to the client by selecting its name from the drop-down list as the Proposed Tax/Cash Form.
Then run the What-If Scenario projection reports or the Comparison of Scenario reports.
For example, a young couple might be trying to decide if the wife should go to work and put the children in day care. Create the baseline form with the current income and expenses. Then, create the what-if (proposed) form with the increased income from her work with the increased living expenses, such as transportation, clothes, day care, etc. Run the comparison reports to see if the clients are really better off.
Or, perhaps the couple wants to see what would happen if one of them quit work. Again, you can estimate their situation solely by using the Tax and Cash Flow Forms.
The following items must be entered into the Tax/Cash Form, regardless of whether or not you have entered asset and liability information into the database for the client:
Filing status
Number of exemptions
Salaries and self-employment income
Tax refunds
Capital gains, interest and other income from assets that are no longer a part of the client's portfolio, but have a tax effect in the current year
Interest expenses and other expense write-offs not related to liabilities or assets already in the database.
Note: On the projection reports, MasterPlan will summarize the items entered on this form as appropriate with a description such as "From Tax Form" or "From Cash Flow Form."
Contributions to or payments from retirement plans entered in the asset database
Property taxes, depreciation and other expenses related to real estate when the property is entered in the asset database
Interest expense treatment from any liability entered in the database for the client
These lists are not complete, but are suggestions of do's and don't's with regard to entries in the Tax and Cash Flow Form.
As you move the cursor from row to row on the Tax Data Tab, the Cash Flow Tab, and the Itemized Deductions Tab, you may notice that the View Database button at the bottom of the window sometimes is grayed out and sometimes is turned on.
When this button is turned on, it indicates that there might be entries in the database that will be added to the figures here when MasterPlan does a projection into the future.
For example, it is turned on when you click on Row 9, Interest Income, because you can enter interest-bearing assets on the database. It is grayed out when you click on Row 17, State Tax Refund, Unemployment Compensation, because there is no other place to enter these figures on the database.
To see exactly what items of cash flow, taxable income, and deductions will be extracted from the database during the Financial Projection, click on the View Database button or press the F10 key. MasterPlan will display a window on the screen listing the items from the database.
MasterPlan will never display any automatically calculated amounts from the database in the Tax and Cash Flow Form. This way, you can always be sure that any amounts that appear in the forms are amounts that you have intentionally entered. This can be of great help later if you need to track down any data entry errors.
Press the F3 key to move forwards and Shift+F3 to move backwards. Press Page Up and Page Down to scroll vertically.
You can type constants or enter Microsoft™ Excel-like formulas. MasterPlan saves these formulas, and you can view them a cell at a time by clicking on a cell and looking at the white strip above the years. Or, you can click on the Show Formulas checkbox at the top of the form, and MasterPlan will widen the cells and display the formulas in each cell.
Once you have entered a value into a cell, you can tab to the next year and press the F6 key to escalate (or de-escalate) that value into the future for as many years as you would like.
Once you have entered a formula into a cell, you can tab to the next year and press the F7 key to copy the formula into the future for as many years as you would like.
If you override a formula (such as on the Cash Flow Tab), and wish to restore the MasterPlan-created formula, click on the cell and press the F8 key.