Receiving share dividends *Updated 17/01/2025
Hi all! (Edit 17/01/2025)
There has been recent interest in this information about share dividends and I am pleased to say that thanks to the help of our wonderful Accountant community, this has now been updated with current screenshots and information 🎉
This article describes a few ways to record the receipt of dividends from a share portfolio. There are a number of ways to record these payments, and the options provided may not be suitable for your needs.
This article is provided for guidance only, and might not be suitable for your business requirements. For example, it's suited to Australian businesses and doesn't cover the payout of dividends. If you need clarification or additional information, check with your accounting advisor or post your question below.
Option 1 - Recording cash dividend only
- Create an Income Account for receipt of your dividends. You may choose to set it up as an Income (4-xxxx) or Other Income (8-xxxx) account. See our example below.
- Enter the receipt of your dividends through Receive Money, allocating the amount to your Dividends account. See our example below.
Option 2 - Recording cash dividend & imputation credits
This method deals with the situation where you want the imputation credit to affect your financial records. When reporting amounts for Pay As You Go Instalments (field T1 on the Business Activity Statement), the amount of the Dividend Imputation Credit is not normally included for calculation, although it is usually included for income tax purposes.
Note: There are exceptions to this treatment. Please seek advice from your accountant or the Australian Taxation Office if you have any queries.
- Setup the following accounts:
- Franked Dividends (Income)
- Dividend Imputation Credit (Income)
- Unfranked Dividends (Income)
- Dividend Imputation Credits (Asset)
- Assuming a cash dividend of $100.00 was received with $50 franked, $50 unfranked and an imputation credit of $28.12, the deposit would appear as shown below.
- The credit of $28.12 is credited to the asset account to be offset against future tax liabilities.
Accounting for new shares purchased as part of a Dividend Reinvestment Plan
- Enter the receipt of your dividends through Receive Money, allocating the amount to your Dividends account then on 2nd line enter asset shares at cost to add shares for reinvestment. Recommend to add number of shares and company
See our example below.