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Is Your Corporation Eligible For The Dividends-Received Deduction?

Tax deduction calculator

There’s a valuable tax deduction available to a C corporation when it receives dividends. The “dividends-received deduction” has a design to reduce or eliminate an extra level of tax on dividends received by a corporation. As a result, a corporation will typically receive taxation at a lower rate on dividends than on capital gains.

Ordinarily, the deduction is 50% of the dividend, with the result that only 50% of the dividend received is effectively subject to tax. For example, if your corporation receives a $1,000 dividend, it includes $1,000 in income, but after the $500 dividends-received deduction, its taxable income from the dividend is only $500.

The deductible percentage of a dividend will increase to 65% of the dividend if your corporation owns 20% or more (by vote and value) of the payor’s stock. If the payor is a member of an affiliated group (based on an 80% ownership test), dividends from another group member are 100% deductible. (If one or more group members are subject to foreign taxes, a special rule requiring consistency in the treatment of foreign taxes applies.) In applying the 20% and 80% ownership percentages, preferred stock isn’t counted if it is limited and preferred as to dividends, doesn’t participate in corporate growth to a significant extent, isn’t convertible, and has limited redemption and liquidation rights.

If a dividend on stock that hasn’t been held for more than two years is an “extraordinary dividend,” the basis of the stock on which the dividend is paid is reduced by the amount that effectively goes untaxed. If the reduction exceeds the basis of the stock, the gain is recognizable. (A dividend paid on common stock will be an extraordinary dividend if it exceeds 10% of the stock’s basis, treating dividends with ex-dividend dates within the same 85-day period as one.)

Holding Period Requirement

The dividends-received deduction is only available if the recipient satisfies a minimum holding period requirement. This requires the recipient to own the stock for at least 46 days during the 91-day period beginning 45 days before the ex-dividend date. For dividends on preferred stock attributable to a period of more than 366 days, the required holding period extends to 91 days during the 181-day period beginning 90 days before the ex-dividend date. Under certain circumstances, periods during which the taxpayer hedges its risk of loss on the stock do not count.

Taxable Income Limitation 

The dividends-received deduction limits to a certain percentage of income. If your corporation owns <20% of the paying corporation, the deduction is limited to 50% of your corporation’s taxable income. However, if allowing the full (50%) dividends-received deduction without the taxable income limitation would result in (or increase) a net operating loss deduction for the year, the limitation doesn’t apply.

Illustrative Example 

Let’s say your corporation receives $50,000 in dividends from a <20% owned corporation and has a $10,000 loss from its regular operations. If there were no loss, the dividends-received deduction would be $25,000 (50% of $50,000). Since taxable income used in computing the dividends-received deduction is $40,000, the deduction limit is $20,000 (50% of $40,000).

Other rules apply if the dividend payor is a foreign corporation. Contact us if you’d like to discuss how to take advantage of this deduction.

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