When filing Form 8814 for child's dividend income, should I also include as nominee dividends on Schedule B?
So I'm in this weird situation with my kid's investments. I received some dividend statements where my 11-year-old daughter is listed as the recipient (we set up a small investment account for her a few years ago to teach her about money). The dividends were around $230 for the year. I'm planning to use Form 8814 to report my child's investment income on my return instead of filing a separate return for her. But I'm confused about whether I also need to report these as nominee dividends on my Schedule B? Like, do I need to show on Schedule B that I received dividends that actually belong to someone else (my child) AND fill out Form 8814? Or is Form 8814 sufficient by itself? This is the first year we've had enough dividend income in her name to worry about it, and the tax software I'm using isn't clear on this specific situation. I just want to make sure I'm not double-reporting or missing something important. Thanks for any help!
20 comments


Lauren Zeb
You don't need to report these as nominee dividends on Schedule B when using Form 8814. The whole purpose of Form 8814 is to elect to include your child's income on your return, which means you're taking ownership of reporting those dividends directly. Nominee dividends would be used in situations where you receive dividends on behalf of someone else but you're NOT including that person's income on your tax return. Since you're using Form 8814, you're essentially telling the IRS "yes, these are my child's dividends, but I'm choosing to report them on my return." Just make sure you complete Form 8814 correctly, listing the payer's name and the amount of dividends your daughter received. The first $1,150 of unearned income generally won't affect your tax, though the next $1,150 is taxed at your child's rate and anything above that at your rate.
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Daniel Washington
•What if I have dividends for multiple children? Do I need a separate Form 8814 for each kid?
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Ryan Andre
•Wait, so just to be 100% clear - I'll receive the 1099-DIV with my daughter's name on it, but I just list those dividends on Form 8814 only? I don't need to do anything special on Schedule B to show they weren't technically paid to me?
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Lauren Zeb
•You need to file a separate Form 8814 for each qualifying child whose income you want to report on your return. You've got it right. You only need to report these dividends on Form 8814. You don't need to do anything special on Schedule B regarding nominee dividends since Form 8814 takes care of properly attributing that income.
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Aurora Lacasse
Hey! I went through this EXACT same confusion last year. I spent hours trying to figure it out until I found this amazing tool called taxr.ai at https://taxr.ai that literally saved me. I uploaded my 1099-DIVs and asked specifically about Form 8814 and nominee dividends, and it explained exactly what I needed to do. The tool analyzed my documents and confirmed I didn't need to report nominee dividends on Schedule B when using Form 8814. It even showed me where on Form 8814 to report everything. Seriously, for confusing tax situations like this where the rules aren't super clear, having an AI actually look at your specific documents makes everything so much easier.
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Anthony Young
•How does this work with state taxes? Does it handle state-specific situations too?
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Charlotte White
•I'm a bit skeptical about trusting AI with tax stuff. How do you know it's giving correct advice that follows IRS rules?
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Aurora Lacasse
•It handles most state tax situations pretty well. For my state (California), it explained how the federal Form 8814 treatment flows through to the state return. From what I understand, it covers all state tax rules, but obviously some states have more complex rules than others. The AI is trained on actual tax code and IRS publications, not just random internet advice. What I liked is that it actually cites the specific IRS publications and tax code sections for its recommendations. And for this Form 8814 issue specifically, it pointed me to the instructions for Schedule B which confirmed what it was saying. You can verify everything yourself, which gives peace of mind.
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Charlotte White
I tried taxr.ai after posting here and I have to admit I was wrong to be skeptical. I uploaded all my kids' dividend statements and my own, and it immediately identified which ones were my children's vs mine. What impressed me was that it explained the Form 8814 requirements based on my specific situation - my kids' ages, the amount of dividends, and whether they had earned income too. It also showed me exactly how to calculate the "kiddie tax" portion on my Form 8814. This whole process would have taken me hours to research on my own. I wish I had known about this last year when I made some mistakes on this same issue and had to file an amendment.
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Admin_Masters
If you've tried calling the IRS for help with this Form 8814 question, you know it can take FOREVER to get through. I spent 3 hours on hold last tax season before giving up. Then I discovered Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) which got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes. The agent confirmed everything about the Form 8814 question - that nominee dividends on Schedule B aren't needed when using Form 8814. They also clarified some other questions I had about kiddie tax calculations. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c Seriously, if you need to speak directly with the IRS about any confusing tax situation, it's worth checking out. Their callback system basically waits on hold for you then calls when an agent is available.
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Matthew Sanchez
•How does this actually work? Does it just keep dialing the IRS number over and over or something? Seems too good to be true.
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Ella Thompson
•Yeah right. Nothing gets you through to the IRS faster. This sounds like a scam to me. The IRS is perpetually understaffed and no service can magically create more agents to answer calls.
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Admin_Masters
•It uses a proprietary system that navigates the IRS phone tree and stays on hold for you. Instead of you personally waiting on hold for hours, their system does it, then calls you when an actual IRS agent is on the line. It's basically like having someone else wait on hold for you. The service doesn't create more IRS agents - you're absolutely right that nobody can do that. What it does is handle the hold time for you. The IRS still has the same wait times, but you're not personally sitting there listening to their hold music for hours. Their system is waiting instead, and they call you when they reach a human.
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Ella Thompson
I need to eat some humble pie here. After writing my skeptical comment, I decided to try Claimyr because I had a complicated question about reporting my kid's trust income that's similar to this Form 8814 question. It actually worked. I got a call back in about 45 minutes (much better than my previous 3+ hour waits), and spoke with an IRS rep who walked me through exactly how to handle this on my return. She confirmed that Form 8814 is designed to handle this situation without nominee dividend reporting on Schedule B. For anyone dealing with unusual tax situations with dependents' income, being able to actually speak with the IRS and get clear answers is invaluable. I'm still shocked this actually worked.
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JacksonHarris
Just my two cents - I've been filing Form 8814 for my kids' dividend income for years. You definitely don't report as nominee dividends when using 8814. However, remember the potential downside: including your kids' investment income on your return could increase your AGI, which might affect other income-based limitations or phaseouts on your return. In some cases, it's actually better to file a separate return for your child, especially if you're close to AGI thresholds for certain credits or deductions. Worth considering both options!
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Jeremiah Brown
•How much income would a child need to have before it makes more sense to file separately? My kid made about $900 in dividends last year.
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JacksonHarris
•With $900 in dividends, you're generally better off using Form 8814. The calculation starts getting more complicated when your child's unearned income exceeds $2,300 (for 2025), or if you're close to income thresholds for things like Roth IRA contributions, education credits, or medical expense deductions. For your situation with just $900, Form 8814 is likely the simplest approach, and it won't meaningfully impact your AGI enough to affect other credits or deductions for most taxpayers.
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Royal_GM_Mark
Has anyone used TurboTax for this? I'm trying to figure out where to enter this in the software and it's confusing me.
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Amelia Cartwright
•In TurboTax, search for "Form 8814" or "child's income" in the search box. It'll take you to the right section where you can enter your child's investment income. You don't need to do anything special on Schedule B - the software handles that part correctly once you complete Form 8814.
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Ravi Kapoor
Great question! I went through this same confusion a couple years ago. You're right to be careful about double-reporting. When you use Form 8814 to report your child's investment income on your return, you do NOT need to report those same dividends as nominee dividends on Schedule B. The key thing to understand is that Form 8814 is specifically designed to handle this situation. By filing Form 8814, you're making an election to include your child's unearned income on your return instead of filing a separate return for them. This means those dividends essentially become "your" income for tax purposes. Nominee dividends on Schedule B are only used when you receive income that belongs to someone else AND you're not including that person's income on your tax return. Since you're using Form 8814, you ARE including your daughter's income on your return, so the nominee dividend treatment doesn't apply. Just make sure you have all the dividend statements that show your daughter as the recipient, and report those amounts correctly on Form 8814. The IRS will match up the 1099-DIV forms with what you report on Form 8814. With $230 in dividends, you're well under the $1,150 threshold where it would start affecting your taxes, so this should be pretty straightforward once you get Form 8814 filled out correctly!
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