Instructions in the Childs Dividend Income Entry Section

[simonusa0]

Under Wages and Income entry section for entering any Child's Dividend Income. In my case the entry is for ~$2k of dividends from my 7 year olds education UTMA account that I am custodian of for her. 

The instructions say 'Do not include dividends or capital gains received as a nominee'.   Yet, in the  subsequent entry fields below that statement  there are 3 fields that seem to ask for exactly that .....e.g.   "Ordinary Dividends received as a Nominee (included in line above)". 

This is confusing and seems contradictory.  Can anyone explain and provide clearer direction whether I should fill in these fields or not?

Is this guidance that needs to be rewritten to be clearer? 

[RobertB4444 · Accepted solution]

If these dividends are received by you as a nominee then you aren't going to be reporting them as your child's dividends - you're reporting them as yours.

If you receive a 1099-DIV with your child's social security number on the form and more than $1050 in the total amount of investment income is received then you'll need to enter your child's income into TurboTax to generate form 8814 in order to report the income.

If you receive a 1099-DIV from an investment account that you own on behalf of your child and it lists you as a nominee but it has your social security number on it then you will enter that 1099-DIV as though it were one received by you for your account and at the end of entering the information you will tell TurboTax that these were nominee dividends (it asks you about a bunch of situations that don't normally apply).

If you receive a 1099-DIV that does not list you as a nominee and has your social security number on it then those dividends are for you and will be listed as dividends paid to you.

Here is a little more on the topic.