Reporting Foreign Dividends

[MAC18]

I am in the Wages and Income section of TurboTax entering my Dividend Income from a 1099.  I have foreign dividends from a couple of countries via individual stocks I own as well as foreign dividends from a mutual fund.  When TurboTax asks me where the dividends are from, I must select either a) Mutual Fund/RIC or b) Other Source.  In my case, I have both but the program does not allow me to select both.  How do I enter the individual countries and RIC for each category of income?

[JulieS]

If your individual stocks are held by a broker that is an RIC (Registered Investment Company), you can just select RIC for all of the foreign income and tax.

If you have separate 1099-DIV forms for the individual stocks, you can select the country of origin for each 1099-DIV.

It may help to know the purpose of this question is make sure you are not taking a credit for taxes paid to a country that supports terrorism. So if you have your investments with a company like Fidelity, you can use RIC for the source even if your details shown France or Germany, for instance.

[MAC18]

Thank you for the reply JulieS.  The individual foreign stock dividends are reported to me from a couple of brokerage form 1099-DIV’s. So if I understand you correctly, I will report those dividends as coming from RIC even though the 1099 lists the individual countries.  I had originally intended to report those dividends as coming from “Various”.  I also have foreign dividends and foreign taxes paid reported to me on a couple of k-1 forms from investment partnership funds.  There are several countries accounting for these dividends.  Should these k-1 foreign dividends also be reported as coming from RIC or from “Various”?

[DaveF1006]

Yes, you may report that the K1 dividends as RIC also.

@MAC18

[yragtlrc]

Have qualified dividends from four foreign sources listed on my brokerage statement including foreign tax paid.  Can dividend amounts and tax paid for each be totaled and entered on a 1099-DIV  or should a separate 1099 form be provided for each source?

[DaveF1006]

You should report these separately in the 1099 DIV section especially if these originate from different sources, especially different countries. The reason I say this is that you will need to report the income separately for each country when you prepare your Form 1116 to claim your foreign tax credit.

As you enter a 1099 DIV in the 1099 DIV section of your return, after you have enter one, there will be a question in the Turbo Tax interview asking if you have more dividend income from somewhere else.  Keep adding until you have entered all four. 

Be sure to check the box in your 1099 DIV entry screen that says my form has more information than listed in these boxes. When you check the box, the screen expands and you will enter the foreign tax paid in Box 7.

@yragtlrc