I posted this earlier in another thread, but repeating it in a new discussion to give it more visibility
I have experimented briefly with the new Qualified Dividend feature and here is what I see:
- There is a new "Qualified dividend by default" check box in the Security Details, but only for securities with a Type of Stock, not mutual funds or ETFs. There are lots of funds and ETFs that always pay Qualified dividends, so I think this option should also be available for them.
- When entering income for a security, there is a new "Qualified" check box next to the Dividend line. If the security is a stock and you have checked the "by default" box in the Security Details, this box is checked. Nice!
- When you have entered a Qualified dividend, it appears as expected in both the Dividend and Qualified dividend sections of the Tax Schedule report.
- Qualified dividends you have entered appear in the _QualDivInc section of the Tax Summary report but not in the _DivInc section. It is debatable whether they should be included in both sections.
- In the Tax Planner, Qualified dividends you have entered are included on both the Dividend and Qualified Dividend lines, as they should, and the tax impact appears to be computed correctly.
- However, I have not found a way to make a Reminder for Qualified dividends. If I make a Dividend reminder for a stock with the "Qualified dividend by default" box checked, the Reminder amounts are included in the Dividend section of the Tax Planner but not the Qualified Dividend section. The dividends are only marked as Qualified when you accept the Reminder. This is a serious deficiency because the Tax Planner relies heavily on Reminders to compute the projected taxes correctly.
I think either the Tax Planner should honor the security's "Qualified by default" box or preferably "Qualified dividend" should be added to the list of income types for investment account income Reminders.
