Travis H. Long, CPA, Inc. Blog

Originally published in the Cedar Street Times

December 26, 2014

In this issue, we are discussing Schedule B – Interest and Ordinary Dividends.  Prior articles are republished on my website at www.tlongcpa.com/blog if you would like to catch up on our Back to Basics series on personal tax returns.

Interest you earn from the use of your money by others is reported in detail  in Part I of Schedule B and then summarized on Line 8a of Form 1040.  Interest is taxed as ordinary income depending on your tax bracket.  The most common form is interest earned from your banks or investment companies.  You will generally receive a Form 1099-INT telling you the amount you paid if the amount is over $10.  If it is under $10, there is no requirement for the payor to go through the hassle to report it to you and the IRS; technically that does not alleviate your responsibility to report it on your tax returns, however.  This holds true for all IRS reportings.  Some people think if no tax document is received, they are somehow relieved from the responsibility to report.  This is an incorrect notion.

Other forms of interest to report on Schedule B could be interest earned from personal loans made to friends or family, or loans made to a business.  In practice, you often will not receive a 1099-INT from individuals you loan money to, but they actually have the same requirements as a bank to file a 1099-INT for interest they pay to you, and they could be penalized for not doing so.

Another form of interest you need to report on Schedule B is interest earned from a seller-financed mortgage.  If you sold your home and carried back a note on the house from the buyer, the interest they pay you is reportable interest on Schedule B.  You are required to track the interest and report it properly.  You and the buyer are both required to provide your names, Social Security numbers, and addresses to each other for proper tax reporting and matching.  You list the buyer’s information in Part I of Schedule B next to the amount they paid you.  A buyer will do the same for reporting the mortgage interest on Schedule A.  A Form W-9 is the best document to request and provide Social Security Numbers.  Buyers and sellers could each be penalized if they fail to provide their Social Security numbers for this purpose or if they simply get it verbally, and it is incorrect.  A W-9 signed by the other party is a protection to you.

Be careful to not include any tax-exempt interest such as from U.S. Treasury Bonds or tax-free municipal bonds on Schedule B.  These would be reported on Line 8b of Form 1040 and are generally not taxable unless there are other adjustments such as those made for Alternative Minimum Tax on Form 6251.  Another source of interest to avoid reporting on your Schedule B is interest earned from investments in your retirement plan (I have see people make this mistake!).

There are other forms of interest or adjustments such as original issue discounts, private activity bond interest, amortizable bond premiums, and nominee distributions which are beyond the scope of this article.

Dividends are reported in detail in Part II of Schedule B and summarized on Line 9a of Form 1040.  Dividends are essentially a return of part of the profits of the business to the owners.  When you own shares of stock in a company, for instance, they may pay out a certain amount per share if the company is doing well.  You can reinvest the dividends and buy more shares or take the cash.  Either way, the dividends get reported on Schedule B.

Dividends are taxed at your ordinary income tax bracket rate unless they qualify for special capital gains rate treatment.  Then they are called qualified dividends.  To qualify for special treatment the dividends must be from U.S. corporations, corporations set up in U.S. Possessions, or in foreign countries with certain tax treaty benefits, or if readily tradable on U.S. stock exchanges.  If you have held the stock for less than a year, there are also some specific holding period requirements that could still allow the stock to qualify.

The portion of ordinary dividends that are considered qualified are reported on Line 9b of Form 1040, and don’t actually show up on the Schedule B.  This is a large advantage as people in the 10 percent or 15 percent income tax bracket pay no tax on capital gains and qualified dividends!  People in the top 39.6 percent bracket pay a 20 percent rate on qualified dividends and everyone in between pays 15 percent.

Part III of Schedule B consists of questions about any foreign accounts or trusts you own or have signature authority over.  These questions are EXTREMELY important to answer correctly.  If you have a foreign account you will also need to file FinCen Form 114 with the Treasury Department.  There are potentially massive penalties for failure to properly report on FinCen Form 114, even if unintentional, and possible jail time if you willfully do not report.  You may also need to file a Form 8938, a 3520 or other forms related to foreign assets.  If you have foreign assets, you should seek professional support that has experience in this area.  Getting caught is much worse than coming forward.

In two weeks we will continue our Back to Basics series with Schedule C – Profit or Loss from Business

Travis H. Long, CPA is located at 706-B Forest Avenue, PG, 93950 and focuses on trust, estate, individual, and business taxation. He can be reached at 831-333-1041.