I agree. Most of the information that I find about ordinary vs qualified dividends implies the values are not overlapping. They say the values are separate which is true (1a vs 1b), but apparently one value contains the other. So saying they are separate is misleading although not incorrect. I did find a nice explanation from AARP:
Qualified dividends are taxed at the same tax rate that applies to net long-term capital gains, while non-qualified dividends are taxed at ordinary income rates. I like the term 'non-qualified'.
I think people may be confused by the use of 'ordinary' for both income and dividend. One might expect ordinary dividends to be taxed as ordinary income. But only non-qualified ordinary dividends are taxed as ordinary income. I think for dividend 'ordinary' means regularly scheduled -- not that it's taxed as ordinary income .. whatever that is 🙂
