J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2013: For Preparing Your 2012 Tax Return

4.10 Year Dividends Are Reported

Dividends are generally reported on the tax return for the year in which the dividend is credited to your account or when you receive the dividend check.

Dividends received from a corporation in a year after the one in which they were declared, when you held the stock on the record date, are taxed in the year they are received; see Example 4 below

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Caution

Year-End Dividend From Mutual Fund

A dividend declared and payable in October through December by a mutual fund or REIT is taxable in the year it is declared, even if it is not paid until January of the following year.

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EXAMPLES

1. A corporation declares a dividend payable on December 28, 2012. It follows a practice of paying dividends by checks that are mailed so that stockholders do not receive them until January 2013. You report this dividend on your 2013 return.

2. On December 28, 2012, a dividend is declared by a mutual fund. You receive it in January 2013. The dividend is taxable in 2012, when declared, and not 2013, when received, under the special rule for dividends declared and payable by a mutual fund in the last three months of the year.

3. On December 28, 2012, a dividend is credited by a corporation to a stockholder’s account and made immediately available. The dividend is taxable in 2012 as the crediting is considered constructive ...