Categorizing Dividends Paid in January that are 'Reportable' in the Previous Year

Geobrick

I've received a couple of Dividends that were paid in January 2017 but were reportable in 2016. Apparently this is allowed in certain situations (in my case it's Host Hotels & Resorts). The IRS allows dividends paid in January to be reported in the previous year for this type of investment (REIT). The brokerage 1099s correctly assigned the dividends to the proper years.

I'd like to be able to have quicken report on these correctly but I'm not sure if it can be done. Is there a way to flag these so they show up in the correct year of tax reports?  

When these transactions were downloaded, they came in as an 'Inc - Income (div, int, etc)'  transaction with the amount under the 'miscellaneous' section of the quicken form/table. In reports they appear as "uncategorized" (not sure why). They currently don't show up at all in Tax Reports because under miscellaneous, they're considered uncategorized. I can see them under income reports.

 

UKR

The quickest and easiest would be to edit these transactions and put in a date of 12/31/2016 in your case. That makes the transaction appear in the correct tax year.

Tom Young

I don't know why the dividends would come down to you as uncategorized - my broker always reports them as dividends, but you certainly can recategorize the dividends as "dividends" if you wish.  Just edit the transactions and re-enter the amount in the dividends box.

I typically have a few January dividend payments that are considered, for tax purposes, as prior year dividend but generally I just leave them alone since reconciling to my broker statement is more important to me than getting an internal Quicken tax report correct, and the broker's 1099-DIV does provide the correct information in any case.

J_Mike

My personal preference for this event;
I have a brokerage holding account - it normally has a zero balance.
Record the dividend income to the holding account  - predated 12/31/TY.
On the date recorded by my FI - transfer the cash from the holding account to the regular brokerage account.

The advantages are; 
The tax reports are correct.
The cash balance in the regular brokerage account is always in sync with what the FI reports.

Geobrick

UKR said:

The quickest and easiest would be to edit these transactions and put in a date of 12/31/2016 in your case. That makes the transaction appear in the correct tax year.

That would do it though reconciling with statements would be thrown off (but just for December and January of each year. 

Geobrick

Tom Young said:

I don't know why the dividends would come down to you as uncategorized - my broker always reports them as dividends, but you certainly can recategorize the dividends as "dividends" if you wish.  Just edit the transactions and re-enter the amount in the dividends box.

I typically have a few January dividend payments that are considered, for tax purposes, as prior year dividend but generally I just leave them alone since reconciling to my broker statement is more important to me than getting an internal Quicken tax report correct, and the broker's 1099-DIV does provide the correct information in any case.

They're not uncategorized by the broker but when I accept the downloaded transaction, quicken puts the amounts in the miscellaneous section of the 'Inc - Income (div, int, etc)' form. Items in that section show up as uncategorized in quicken reports.

Geobrick

JM said:

My personal preference for this event;
I have a brokerage holding account - it normally has a zero balance.
Record the dividend income to the holding account  - predated 12/31/TY.
On the date recorded by my FI - transfer the cash from the holding account to the regular brokerage account.

The advantages are; 
The tax reports are correct.
The cash balance in the regular brokerage account is always in sync with what the FI reports.

That covers all bases with a few extra steps. Thanks. I'm not sure what I'll end up doing.

q_lurker

Tom Young said:

I don't know why the dividends would come down to you as uncategorized - my broker always reports them as dividends, but you certainly can recategorize the dividends as "dividends" if you wish.  Just edit the transactions and re-enter the amount in the dividends box.

I typically have a few January dividend payments that are considered, for tax purposes, as prior year dividend but generally I just leave them alone since reconciling to my broker statement is more important to me than getting an internal Quicken tax report correct, and the broker's 1099-DIV does provide the correct information in any case.

Regardless of how the brokerage shows the information on its website and statements, it is the brokerage that creates the transactions that download into Quicken.  It is the brokerage that is creating these as MiscInc transactions.  MiscInc transactions "require" a category but since your brokerage does not really "know" all your categories, they can't provide that information.  Thus they are 'uncategorized'.  

As an alternate option, on the Income form, you could supply the _DivInc category for the MiscInc field.  That has no advantage over changing the amount to the Div amount field.  Just thought I should mention it.  

It may be (because this is a REIT investment) that the amount paid is really a return of capital rather than a dividend.  That may be why the brokerage is setting it up as MiscInc.  If that is the case, you might want to change that to a RtrnCap transactions for the relevant amount.  

Regarding the dating -- for me it is more important to get the tax-year info as correct as possible, so I re-date these transactions with a memo explanation about the change.  Clearly a personal preference decision.  

Geobrick

Tom Young said:

I don't know why the dividends would come down to you as uncategorized - my broker always reports them as dividends, but you certainly can recategorize the dividends as "dividends" if you wish.  Just edit the transactions and re-enter the amount in the dividends box.

I typically have a few January dividend payments that are considered, for tax purposes, as prior year dividend but generally I just leave them alone since reconciling to my broker statement is more important to me than getting an internal Quicken tax report correct, and the broker's 1099-DIV does provide the correct information in any case.

Thanks q.lurker. How would I "supply the _DivInc category for the MiscInc field"?

Looking at my 2016 1099, it's more complicated than I thought. 
I had 2 of these transactions on Jan 17, 2017
 - one is for $4.00 the other is for $16. 
My January statement refers to them as dividends. The descriptions for each say  "REIT HOLDING 80.0000 PAY DATE 01/17/2017 PAYABLE IN 2017 REPORTABLE IN 2016".
My 1099 shows those amounts broken out. Of the $20 total, $13.69 is considered dividends, $5.02 is under "Long Term Capital Gain Distributions" and $1.29 is under section "UNRECAPTURED SECTION 1250 GAIN". I'm not sure why those came in as 2 transactions or what the split would be to the various categories of the separate transactions.

Are any of those categories considered RtrnCap and if they are, wouldn't I see a reduction in the stock's cost basis on my statement at some point during the year after the transaction? 

q_lurker

Tom Young said:

I don't know why the dividends would come down to you as uncategorized - my broker always reports them as dividends, but you certainly can recategorize the dividends as "dividends" if you wish.  Just edit the transactions and re-enter the amount in the dividends box.

I typically have a few January dividend payments that are considered, for tax purposes, as prior year dividend but generally I just leave them alone since reconciling to my broker statement is more important to me than getting an internal Quicken tax report correct, and the broker's 1099-DIV does provide the correct information in any case.

How would I "supply the _DivInc category for the MiscInc field"?

When you choose to Edit that transaction (the edit button, not just changing data in-line) the form provides a category field for MiscInc components. 

If you wanted to be complete about it for 2016 tax accounting, you would Edit that transaction, fill in the 13.69 fir the Dividend line, 5.02 for the LT Gains line, and the 1.29 for the 1250 Gain.  Potentially, you could create a new category for the 1250 gain.  I don't know where that is suppose to flow tax-wise.  I don't think it is addressed anywhere in Quicken tax-line assignments that you might associate to the new category.  As I previously indicated, my choice would be to re-date the transaction to 2016.  JM's approach covers more bases.  Or leave as currently dated with the memo clarifying. 

I do not think the 1250 Gain is a RtrnCap situation.    

Geobrick

Tom Young said:

I don't know why the dividends would come down to you as uncategorized - my broker always reports them as dividends, but you certainly can recategorize the dividends as "dividends" if you wish.  Just edit the transactions and re-enter the amount in the dividends box.

I typically have a few January dividend payments that are considered, for tax purposes, as prior year dividend but generally I just leave them alone since reconciling to my broker statement is more important to me than getting an internal Quicken tax report correct, and the broker's 1099-DIV does provide the correct information in any case.

"When you choose to Edit that transaction (the edit button, not just changing data in-line) the form provides a category field for MiscInc components."

OK. I get it. I'd just be moving the amount to the different lines not creating how their assigned on the form.

J_Mike

Tom Young said:

I don't know why the dividends would come down to you as uncategorized - my broker always reports them as dividends, but you certainly can recategorize the dividends as "dividends" if you wish.  Just edit the transactions and re-enter the amount in the dividends box.

I typically have a few January dividend payments that are considered, for tax purposes, as prior year dividend but generally I just leave them alone since reconciling to my broker statement is more important to me than getting an internal Quicken tax report correct, and the broker's 1099-DIV does provide the correct information in any case.

Re 1250 Gains
Agree, they are not ROC.
They are a "sub-group" under LT Cap Gains; i.e., the 1250 Gains are included in the LT Cap Gain total (this per examination of my 1099R's). Appears that the 1250 Gains portion gets additional processing for tax purposes.

From my limited research - 1250 Gains are akin to unrecaptured depreciation on sale of a rental property. I sold a rental property awhile back (no rollover) and the recapture of depreciation was a painful tax bite.