Comments

  • William 

    Why are the taxable amount of dividends higher than the actual amount I received? I know I receive a Dividend Tax Credit but it doesn’t come close to the amount I have to pay on the taxable amount. Why is that?

    • TSI Research 

      To claim the federal dividend tax credit, you must first “gross up” the amount of dividends actually received by 38% to determine the taxable amount of dividends. You then compute a dividend tax credit based on this inflated amount.

      So, 138% of eligible dividends are included in taxable income for individuals. The additional 38% is called the “gross-up”, which is meant to represent the corporate income tax that has been paid on the income earned by the corporation. The dividend tax credit is then calculated, with the intention of providing a tax credit for the corporate income tax paid. The result is that the marginal tax rate for eligible dividends is quite a bit lower than the marginal tax rate for employment income, interest and foreign dividends. It is also lower than the marginal tax rate for capital gains, but only to a certain level of taxable income.

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