How do I calculate the US Government interest for 1099-DIV?

[emaven]

That site is in a language I can’t read or understand. 

[steve2488]

(CORRECT) search "pfmco.com program" gets the correct site. https://www.mfpco.com/

(INCORRECT) entering just "mfpco.com", I got a site in Chinese characters about starting a new business in, probably, China.

[steve2488]

TurboTax pogrom on 1099-DIV has a step "tell us if any of these UNCOMMON situations apply to you. (it is actually in lower case" uncommon").

I have to say that TT has been a little misleading, because it looks very "common" that "a portion of the dividends is U.S. Government".

Hence for over a decade, I just assume I had none (because TT says it is uncommon!).  I have Fidelity FDRXX for over 20 years, and I knew there is a PDF file showing the percentage (FDRXX is 50% or more), but I never apply it till now.  For 2020, I entered the number, and plan to file amendment for the past few years, because I had FDRXX dividend in the thousands.

[CharleyBC]

Yes, I guess I've made the same mistake in the past, since TT says it's an uncommon situation. Sigh. This year I looked at my Vanguard 1099-DIV more closely, and indeed most of our ETFs have some portion of US Government interest. TT imported from Vanguard nicely, but I must say I'm disappointed it can't do the calculations automatically from the imported data. Or at least offer a worksheet to hold my hand through entering the amount and percent for each fund, and accumulate the total. Sigh again. Easy math, but tedious.

[ron6612]

I have Marcus savings account from Goldman Sachs and they won't provide any information on what percentage of the interest income is from US obligations.  I'm pretty sure that they invest in govt obligations but can't get information from them or online.  The percentage from US obligations is not taxable to Maryland.  Any help on this would be appreciated!

[MarilynG1]

Obviously, TurboTax wouldn't know what % of your Dividends is from US obligations.

If your broker doesn't provide this info (sometimes as a Supplemental Info page), you may be able to go online to their site and look up the funds you received dividends from to see what % of the fund is invested in US obligations.

If you have an amount in Box 11 on your 1099-Div that probably represents municipal dividends that would be excluded on your state return.

Click this link for more discussion on 1099-Div Government Interest. 

[ron6612]

Can there be state tax exempt interest on bank money market account?

[FangxiaL]

Yes, there can be tax-free money market funds that are invested primarily in muni bonds or debt issued by other entities whose interest payments are exempt from federal income taxes.  

It depends on which fund you chose to park your money. You can look at the 1099-INT form to see how much you earned and which box it is reported. If the interest income is reported in box 1, it is taxed as ordinary income. 

@ron6612

[CharleyBC]

It seems there's an obvious and easy (at least for us taxpayers) answer the US Government is missing. Given that the tax return requires that we enter how much of the 1099-DIV amount is from US stuff, put a new box on the 1099-DIV that reports that amount. Then it's a simple matter of copying the amount found in Box 17 (or whatever). Make the brokerage firm who has all the info in the first place do the math.

[ron6612]

A CPA said this to me:  I am not aware of any bank money market account that has US government interest.

If you were in a fund of some kind then there may be government interest, but not with a bank money market account.  Your money was deposited directly with the bank.“

I don’t understand why if the bank invested funds in government obligations that percentage would be state tax free?

Why is this so complicated to get an answe?