Qualified Dividends treated as ordinary income

[Richard137]

The qualified dividends listed on 1040 in line 3a do not seem to be getting treated as capital gains and taxed at lower rate.  There is no entry showing the taxable rate for the qualified dividends is the capital gains rate.  It appears that they are being taxed as ordinary income.  Can anyone help me determine if I got the benefit of the lower tax rate for qualified dividends?

[VolvoGirl · Accepted solution]

Even though it shows up as income on the first page,if you have capital gains or qualified dividends the tax is not taken from the tax table but is calculated separately from schedule D.  The tax will be calculated on the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet.  It does not get filed with your return.

In the online version you need to save your return as a pdf file and include all worksheets to see it.

For the Desktop version you can switch to Forms Mode and open the worksheet to see it.  Click Forms in the upper right (upper left for Mac) and look through the list and open the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet.  And you will need to use this IRS worksheet on page 15.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040tt.pdf

You can probably tell because the tax on 1040 will be less than the Tax Table

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/forms/help/form-1040-line-11-amount-is-less-than-standard-irs-tax-...