What is this "5-Section 199A dividends" line on my 2019 Robinhood 1099-DIV?

Robinhood messed up. Or maybe it was the government. But in either case, Robinhood ended up sending me two sets of 1099s this year - an original one, and a “corrected” one.

Well, they actually sent me three - “Robinhood Crypto” sent me one, whereas “Robinhood Securities” sent me the two.

What confused me was this “5- Section 199A dividends” line:

My 2019 Robinhood 1099-DIV

On the original 1099-DIV it didn’t matter since the line had a value of $0.00. But the corrected value has a value of $1.55.

Does this mean I have to pay extra tax on this buck-fifty-five? Or perhaps… Less?

It turns out the answer is technically neither (the buck-fifty-five was not enough to affect my taxes) but if it were five or more dollars, I would have ended up owing less tax.

This buck-fifty-five “Section 199A dividends” was from a couple of shares of REIT called New Residential Investment (NRZ), which I picked up the first share back in November 2018.

It turns out I report this buck-fifty-five on line 6 of IRS Form 8995.

Line six reads:

6 Qualified REIT dividends and publicly traded partnership (PTP) income or (loss) (see instructions)

The instructions for line six merely read “Enter income as a positive number and losses as a negative number” - however, there is this section earlier in the instructions:

Determining Your Qualified REIT Dividends and Qualified PTP Income/ Loss

Qualified REIT dividends include any dividends you received from a REIT held for more than 45 days and for which the payment isn’t obligated to someone else and that isn’t a capital gain dividend or qualified dividend, plus your qualified REIT dividends received from a regulated investment company (RIC). This amount is reported to you on Form 1099-DIV, line 5.

See that last bit? This amount is reported to you on Form 1099-DIV, line 5. That’s what I’m looking for!

It turns out I get to deduct from my income 20% of the “qualified REIT dividends” I received. This was new last year (Tax Cuts & Jobs Act thing) and form 8995 is a new form for this year (last year it was a worksheet that you didn’t file).

Lines six through seven of Form 8995 help you calculate how much you can deduct:

6 Qualified REIT dividends and publicly traded partnership (PTP) income or (loss) (see instructions)

7 Qualified REIT dividends and qualified PTP (loss) carryforward from the prior year

8 Total qualified REIT dividends and PTP income. Combine lines 6 and 7. If zero or less, enter -0-

9 REIT and PTP component. Multiply line 8 by 20% (0.20)

Everything is rounded to the nearest dollar, so my $1.55 becomes $2.00, and 20% of two bucks is $0.40 - which, being rounded to the nearest dollar, is a big fat zero.

In other words, the following are lines six through nine for me:

My Form 8995, Lines 6, 7, 8, and 9

So I get no extra deductions for my buck-and-a-half of qualified REIT dividends.

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