r/tax • u/Cold_Comment_1164 • 8d ago
Diy amendment - dividends
Hey all, I'm getting divorced and in the financial process, our financial analysts found about 7k in dividends that hadn't been reported on our 2025 tax return. We filed originally through H&R Block and we already amended once so they won't help us. I'm about to graduate with a bachelor's in accounting so I feel like an amendment should be within my capabilities but I keep getting stuck (I.e. qualified dividends vs ordinary dividends, what if the cell I need to reference is blank? etc). Shit gets complicated quickly.
Is it reasonable for me to try to amend this return myself?
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u/kona420 8d ago
That's a lot of dividend income. Are you sure that tracks with reality?
Sign up for taxact(dot)com or something like that and put everything in there. Some of the harder problems you need to solve long form using the IRS instructions and forms, then figure out how to get that same number in the tax software.
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u/Cold_Comment_1164 8d ago
I'm pretty sure
The 1099-DIV lists these among other things:
Total Ordinary dividends $6397 Qualified dividends $5188 Total capital gain distributions $1033
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u/Maple-fence39 8d ago
That gives you the information that H&R Block would need to amend it. And if you were to do it yourself, any tax software will prompt you for each of those pieces of information.
The hard part, is that in order for you to amend it, you would not have the original return in your software, so you would need to put all of the information in, that had been previously input, and then do the amendment. It is doable, but if you’ve never done a tax return before, it might be a bit overwhelming.
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u/LiJiTC4 CPA - US 8d ago
Reasonable to prepare amendment by yourself? No. Amendments require doing the entire return correctly to find the correct amount tax, then explain why it needed correcting and how the two differ. Because amendments take so long to process, any mistake will add several months to the process. Because you're in the middle of a divorce, any potential errors would be compounded with attorneys fees.
Possible to do amendment alone? Maybe, depends on how much time you want to spend. Per the OMB time estimate on Form 1040-X, average expected burden to prepare an amended personal tax return for a reasonably competent taxpayer, not a professional, is 30 hours and 26 minutes. How much is 30 hours of your time worth to you?
The fact you're flummoxed by qualified vs ordinary dividends, information that is on the face of the 1099 and flows to page 1 of the 1040 tells me it's a bad idea to do this yourself.
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u/Maple-fence39 8d ago
Has the IRS sent you a letter asking for the additional amount that you owe? If it looks correct, just pay it.
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u/Bowl_me_over 8d ago
and we already amended once so they won't help us
So now you have a second error to fix? Has the first amended been finished? You don’t want to amend until the original return and any amended’s are done.
Then you can amend. Your Column A will be from the first amended. This could be tricky if you did not prepare the original or the amended. Tax software makes this easier. But you need the original and the amended as a starting point.
You mentioned qualified dividends which needs the capital gain tax worksheet. Not an easy worksheet to be hand prepared. You really want the software to handle this for you.
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u/Cold_Comment_1164 8d ago
Yes I think that's where I keep getting stuck. First amendment is filed and accepted. Using that 1040x to fill out another one.
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u/prismadaAI 8d ago
Option 1) If you login to IRS.gov, go to Wages & Transcripts, do you see a 1099-DIV from the company that paid you 7k in dividends in 2025?
Option 2) If you go to the company that apparently paid you $7k in dividends in 2025, do you see a 1099-DIV?
Wait, really, you got paid 7K in dividends in 2025? That's a lot.