Bear in mind that the design of the T slips and the method for reporting dividend income is determined by the government. It is what it is. That being said, dividend income is a very favourable source of income, as the tax hit on your personal return is much less than if that income had been received through employment. If you received $5K in actual dividends reported at box 23, then the amount in box 32 and shown as part of your income on the tax return is $5900. The amount in box 39 is a dividend tax credit, and for an actual dividend of $5K it would be $650.00 . This is meant to roughly offset the tax hit, as technically dividend income is paid out of profits of a corporation AFTER the corporate tax has already been paid.
