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

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 3, 2019
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My 1099-DIV has an entry in Box 10. Is that the "amount of dividends that represents interest from US Government obligations"? I have selected the first entry in the "uncommon situations" dialog when manually entering 1099 information for a brokerage company. I've already entered the Box 10 and Box 11 information for the form.

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Best answer by GeoffreyG

It seems like you understand the Form 1099-DIV data entry process pretty well already. Boxes 10 and 11 are for municipal (tax-exempt) bonds, and private activity bonds (a sub-set of municipal bonds).

After your main entry screen in TurboTax, however, you are given the opportunity to enter certain additional information, such as US government interest. (Please see the screen-capture image below; simply click to open.) Typically, such federal government interest would come from holding a mutual fund or ETF that invests some (or all) of its assets in US government securities, and then pays you "dividends" as an investor in that fund.

This bring us back to your original question, and the way that you would have to determine that number. Basically, you have to look to your brokerage firm's 1099-DIV statement, which may have a breakout of some kind, for US government interest, and that will be the (percentage) figure you would use to figure out the amount of your dividends that were, in fact, federal interest.

If your brokerage firm hasn't done the legwork for you, then you'd need to do it yourself. Essentially this will involve looking at the website for fund company that sponsors each of your investments (Vanguard, Fidelity, Pimco, etc.), and then accessing their taxpayer information webpage(s). Typically, they will have a federal interest breakdown shown there, by fund.

If you have further questions, encounter any difficulties, or just want to speak with a live tax expert who can walk you through your TurboTax entries (including the ability to screen-share with your computer), please feel free to contact us. We would be happy to help you (and as a Premier customer, the call is free to you). Here is a link where you can create a support ticket and reach us:

https://support.turbotax.intuit.com/contact/

Thank you for asking this question.

G

GeoffreyGAnswer

Employee

It seems like you understand the Form 1099-DIV data entry process pretty well already. Boxes 10 and 11 are for municipal (tax-exempt) bonds, and private activity bonds (a sub-set of municipal bonds).

After your main entry screen in TurboTax, however, you are given the opportunity to enter certain additional information, such as US government interest. (Please see the screen-capture image below; simply click to open.) Typically, such federal government interest would come from holding a mutual fund or ETF that invests some (or all) of its assets in US government securities, and then pays you "dividends" as an investor in that fund.

This bring us back to your original question, and the way that you would have to determine that number. Basically, you have to look to your brokerage firm's 1099-DIV statement, which may have a breakout of some kind, for US government interest, and that will be the (percentage) figure you would use to figure out the amount of your dividends that were, in fact, federal interest.

If your brokerage firm hasn't done the legwork for you, then you'd need to do it yourself. Essentially this will involve looking at the website for fund company that sponsors each of your investments (Vanguard, Fidelity, Pimco, etc.), and then accessing their taxpayer information webpage(s). Typically, they will have a federal interest breakdown shown there, by fund.

If you have further questions, encounter any difficulties, or just want to speak with a live tax expert who can walk you through your TurboTax entries (including the ability to screen-share with your computer), please feel free to contact us. We would be happy to help you (and as a Premier customer, the call is free to you). Here is a link where you can create a support ticket and reach us:

https://support.turbotax.intuit.com/contact/

Thank you for asking this question.

C

ccamAuthor

Thanks so much for a nice detailed answer. This helps me a lot. My tax information statement does indeed have a breakdown, so I believe I can calculate the necessary values from that. It's good to know I have the TT help center as a fallback though!

R

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!

M

mglauner

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.