Entering dividend income from T5 slips-Manual input required of 3 amounts

[T1filer]

With Turbotax, to enter dividend income as reported on a T5 slip, it is necessary to input all 3 amounts: (i) actual amount of dividend, (ii) taxable amount of dividend, and (iii) dividend tax credit.  

1.  With other similarly-priced competitor software, it is not necessary to enter all 3 amounts.  For example, if the user enters the actual amount of the dividend, the software can automatically calculate what the taxable amount is and what the dividend tax credit should be.  Why is Turbotax different?  The requirement to manually input these amount increases the risk of human error when the calculations could be easily done by the software.  Is this something that can be passed on to the appropriate Turbotax department as a way of improving the software (to make it competitive with other brands)?

2.  Is there a check in Turbotax that will catch any human input errors?  For example, if the user received and enters an actual amount of eligible dividend of $100, but makes a mistake and enters the taxable amount to be $125 instead of the correct $138, will Turbotax catch and correct this, perhaps as part of the Review steps?

Thank you.

[Triet Pham]

Hello,

TurboTax also have the feature to auto calculate the other fields for you if you just provide the input for the dividend. If you enter the value in box 24 there and move forward to the next step, it will populate other fields (box 25). However, the reason why we allow input in the other fields is to provide a way to override the values in case the value in the payslips is different from what is auto-calculated. 

Regarding your question on catching any human input errors during the inputs, TurboTax already have the auto calculation feature which use the correct formula to calculate the values for you. If you choose to override the value, then there's no validation on that again

[T1filer]

Thank you for your response.

1.  I assume that the calculate feature is automatic and we do not have to turn it on?  I tried to test this by entering the actual amount of eligible dividend in Box 24 for T5 slips, but I don't see Boxes 25 and 26 being auto-populated?  Furthermore, the amount entered in Box 24 does not get carried forward at all to the T1-SUPP, T1 Worksheet or the T1 General.  This seems to imply that the user is required to hard key all 3 boxes relating to dividend income received in the T-Slips?

2.  The taxable amount of eligible dividends and the dividend tax credit are defined specifically by reference to a formula; therefore, unless the tax rules change, the tax slips should not be different from what is auto-calculated by Turbotax (unless the tax slips were prepared incorrectly), so I am still not clear why Turbotax does not just ask for Box 24 and leave it at that.  There is no way Box 25 can be anything other than 1.38 times the amount reported in Box 24, because that is the formula prescribed for purposes of the Income Tax Act.  

[TurboTaxSusan]

@T1filer The other posters was thinking of TurboTax Online, which will automatically calculate Box 25 for you. TurboTax Desktop doesn't do this. Also, while it hasn't changed in some time, the rate to calculate taxable amount of eligible dividends has been different from the current 138% in the past.

Thank you for choosing TurboTax. 

[T1filer]

Yes, I understand that the gross-up factor for dividends has changed in the past.  However, my point was that for any given year, the gross-up factor and dividend tax credit rate would be the same, so I still cannot understand why Turbotax Desktop requires its users to manually input 3 amounts for a single item of income.  It would spare users a lot of time and sore eyes, as well as the chance of human error, not to input the 2 extra set of amounts if Turbotax just incorporates the automatic calculation into the software.  Also, why is the automatic calculation available for Turbotax Online, but not Turbotax Desktop?

I have been a Turbotax user for many years, and before that, I used UFile.  I switched to Turbotax even though it was more expensive at that time because I thought Turbotax is more "sophisticated", but in recent years, I am beginning to realize this may not be the case, judging from the required manual entry of 3 amounts for each dividend income source, to the limit of 5 lines on the T1135 for Part B(2).  I am sure there are many more.  If Turbotax wants to remain competitive with the many other choices its users have these days, it needs to listen to its users.  The complaint about the 5-line restriction on the T1135 for Part B(2) has been going on for many years.  How Turbotax thinks it makes sense to provide 40 lines for Part B(7) but not for the more commonly-used Part B(2) does not seem to make too much sense, especially after all the complaints received over the years.  At the very least, why not move some lines from Part B(7) to Part B(2)?  This has been a user request for many years, and suggesting that the user manually file the T1135 while netfiling the T1 is making things more complicated for the user.

I would like to stay with Turbotax so the above comments are made with the sincere interest of making the product better.  I would think these are simple fixes, so hopefully, Intuit will listen to its users before they start to switch to competitors, as many have written about in this community.  2024 T1 season was already hectic with all the Netfile errors and other issues that were outside of Turbotax's control, but it would have been a lot smoother had there not been these issues with Turbotax Desktop.  I will have to check back in January 2026 to see if any improvements have been made before deciding what software to use for 2025.