What Is Dividend Exclusion?
Dividend exclusion is a general term for a variety of federal and state tax provisions that allow corporations to exclude from their taxable income a portion of the dividends they receive from other corporations.The purpose of excluding these received dividends is to shield them from double taxation or even triple taxation. Under current U.S. tax law, corporations are able to exclude all or part of their received dividends through the dividends-received deduction (DRD).
Key Takeaways
- U.S. corporations are allowed to exclude a portion of the dividends they receive from other corporations in order to avoid double taxation.
- The federal dividends-received deduction applies only to corporations and not to individuals who receive dividend income.
- At one time, individual taxpayers were also eligible for what was known as a "dividend exclusion."
- The amount of their dividend income that corporations are currently allowed to deduct ranges from 50% to 100%.
What Is Double or Triple Taxation?
Double taxation occurs when the same income is taxed twice. Triple taxation is when it is taxed three times.
For example, a corporation is required to pay taxes on its profits. When it distributes a portion of its profits to its individual shareholders in the form of dividends, the shareholders must pay tax on those dividends. That is double taxation.
Now suppose a corporation owns stock in another corporation. The first corporation pays a tax on its profits, some of which it passes along to the second corporation as a dividend. The second corporation must then pay tax on its profits (some of which may represent the dividends it received from the first corporation). If the second corporation pays out a dividend to its individual shareholders, they will be taxed on that income—in effect, taxing the same income a third time.
The dividends-received deduction provides corporations with a way to avoid taxation on at least some of the income they receive from other corporations.
How the Dividends-Received Deduction Works
The dividends-received deduction allows corporations to deduct a portion of the income they received from their ownership interests in other corporations when they file their corporate income taxes for the year.
How much they can deduct depends on their relationship to the other corporation:
Dividends from foreign corporations. A corporation is allowed to deduct as much as 100% of the dividend income it receives from certain foreign corporations, defined as qualified 10-percent owned foreign corporations, subject to the rules spelled out in the instructions for IRS Form 1120: U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return.
Dividends from U.S. corporations. Dividends that a corporation receives from another domestic corporation are partially deductible. Specifically, corporations can deduct 50% of the dividends they received if they own less than 20% of the stock of the corporation distributing the dividend. If they own 20% or more of the distributing corporation's stock, they can deduct 65% of the dividends received. Both of these amounts are subject to certain limitations, also spelled out in the 1120 tax form instructions.
In addition, corporations may deduct 100% of dividends received from another corporation that is part of the same affiliated group.
Important
Unlike corporations, individual taxpayers can't exclude dividends from their income. However, prior to the Tax Reform Act of 1986, taxpayers were allowed what was called a "dividend exclusion." Single taxpayers could exclude the first $100 in dividend income they received and couples could exclude $200.
DividendDeductions and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
The federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) passed in late 2017 changed the rules on how much of its received dividends a corporation could deduct, lowering the applicable amounts starting on Jan. 1, 2018. Until that point, corporations that owned less than 20% of another company's shares were able to deduct 70% of their received dividends. If a corporation owned 20% or moreof the company, it could deduct 75%of the dividends. (As noted above, those numbers are now 50% and 65%, respectively.)
The new tax law also replaced the graduated corporate tax rate scheme, which had a top rate of 35%, with a flat 21%tax rate on all C corporations. Factoring that in, the reduced exclusions and the lower tax rate were expected to result in roughly the same actual tax due on dividends received.
Benefits of Dividend Deductions
The dividends-received deduction, while lower than it once was, benefits companies by providing them with extra cash they can use for investment purposes, to expand, or to upgrade their current operations. It may also allow companies to avoid resorting to debt financing for those expenditures. In addition, it at least partially addresses concerns that taxing the same dividend income more than once is fundamentally unfair.
What Is a Qualified 10-Percent Owned Foreign Corporation?
The law defines a qualified 10-percent owned foreign corporation as "any foreign corporation (other than a passive foreign investment company) if at least 10 percent of the stock of such corporation (by vote and value) is owned by the taxpayer."
What Is an Affiliated Group?
Corporations are considered to be part of the same affiliated group when one corporation owns 80% or more of another corporation. The relationship typically involves a parent company and one or more subsidiaries in which it holds a substantial stake.
Are the Dividends That Corporations Pay Out Tax-Deductible?
No, corporations receive no tax deduction for the dividends they pay out to individual shareholders, and those shareholders must pay taxes on them.
How Much Tax Do Individuals Pay on Dividends?
The IRS breaks the dividends that individuals receive into two categories for tax purposes: ordinary and qualified. The main difference between the two is that for a dividend to be qualified the shareholder must have owned the stock for "more than 60 days during the 121-day period that begins 60 days before the ex-dividend date." Ordinary dividends are taxed at the same rate as the shareholder's other income, while qualified dividends are taxed at the more favorable rates of 0%, 10%, or 20%, depending on the shareholder's tax bracket.
The Bottom Line
Corporations are allowed to deduct a portion of the dividend income they receive before they pass it along to their own shareholders. Individual shareholders, however, continue to be taxed on the dividends that they receive.
