Non-qualified dividends

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A portion of your ordinary dividends may be non-qualified dividends because they can include items like these:
 * Taxable interest. When a mutual fund receives taxable interest, the income gets paid out as a dividend. It's a dividend when it goes out of the mutual fund, but it wasn't a dividend when it came into the mutual fund, so it can't be a qualified dividend.
 * Non-qualified dividends. Your mutual fund may receive dividends that are non-qualified. For example, the mutual fund may sell shares just 35 days after buying them, but after receiving a dividend. The mutual fund has to hold the shares at least 61 days to have a qualified dividend. Any amount the mutual fund receives as a non-qualified dividend gets paid to you as a non-qualified dividend.
 * Short-term capital gain. When a mutual fund has a short-term capital gain, it pays this amount to the mutual fund shareholders as an ordinary dividend.
 * Holding mutual fund shares less than 61 days. You should also be aware that any dividend you receive on mutual fund shares held less than 61 days is a non-qualified dividend, even if the mutual fund reports that amount to you as a qualified dividend. You don't have to buy the shares 61 days before the dividend is paid, but the total amount of time you hold the shares (including time before and after the dividend) has to be at least 61 days.

Almost all of the dividends distributed by equity REITS come in the form of non-qualified dividends. Non-qualified dividends are taxed at marginal income tax rates.