1099-DIV error - Box 1b should be less than or equal to box 1a

[sankalp-money]

Hello! I am using Turbotax Premier for Mac. I imported the 1099-DIV form from Robinhood into Turbotax. However, in the final steps right before transmitting the information to the IRS , Turbotax platform is complaining about the 1099-DIV form with the error "Box 1b should be less than or equal to box 1a". These are the problematic values on that form.

1a: -2.19 (its a negative value)

1b: 2.53

I have attached the screenshot as well. Please tell me what should I do?

Thanks!

Error on the platform - 

Snippet of my 1099-Div form - 

[Anonymous_ · Accepted solution]

Qualified dividends are merely a subset of total ordinary dividends.

As such, qualified dividends should not exceed the ordinary dividends total.

[Critter]

How can you have negative income ???   Ask Robinhood for an explanation and/or a corrected 1099 form. 

[sankalp-money]

@Anonymous_  Thanks for your response. I got in touch with my brokerage about those negative dividends.

They responded that they have issued Consolidated 1099 forms (1099-INT, 1099-DIV, and 1099-B forms) and I should be using them to file taxes, not independent ones. 

Right now, Turbotax imported those values online when I provided the document Id and account number for my brokerage. So how can I import or input those entries as a consolidated 1099 instead of a single 1099-Div form in Turbotax?

Thanks!

[Critter]

It may not be possible to  import the information ... start by deleting the imported information then try again  OR  enter the info manually. 

[sankalp-money]

I followed this blog post for how to enter a consolidated 1099 form into Turbotax. 

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-credits-deductions/discussion/how-do-i-report-2019-consolidate...

It suggests to individually go into each of those 1099-DIV, 1099-MISC and 1099-B forms and fill details in there manually. I can do that but I can not stop 1a from being negative. The platform will still not let me move forward. 

If it helps, this is where that negative dividend is coming from in the image below. My brokerage said that TurboTax will know what's best to put there. 

[sankalp-money]

I think I get it what's going on. This is coming from being short call options. I got assigned and I was supposed to pay dividends to the other party. Web platform is showing me a -$35.78 of dividend on my account on 9/25. 

However, in 1099-DIV this is split into two sections - 

1. "Fee and Expenses" section. There it shows and amount of -$31.06 with transaction type of "Dividend paid- short"

2. "Detail for Dividends and Distributions" section in the image above. There it shows -$4.72 with the transaction type of "Adj- Nonqualified dividend". 

These two amounts sum out to be 31.06 + 4.72 = 35.78 which is exactly what shows on the online brokerage platform. 

So maybe I can drop this negative 4.72 dividend and simply report the rest 1.05+0.25+1.23 = $2.53 into my dividends. We're talking less than $5 of dividends. So maybe its okay not reporting it as well. 

What do you think about it?