Tax Treatment of Distributions (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Reconciliation of dividends declared to dividends paid

The following table reconciles the dividends declared per share of common stock to the dividends paid per share of common stock during the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017 as follows:



	Year Ended December 31,
Dividends	2019			2018			2017
Dividends declared per share of common stock	$	1.910		$	1.790		$	1.650
Less: Dividends declared in the current year and paid in the following year	(0.485		)	(0.455		)	(0.425		)
Add: Dividends declared in the prior year and paid in the current year ⁽¹⁾	0.455			0.425			2.275
Dividends paid per share of common stock	$	1.880		$	1.760		$	3.500

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(1)

The fourth quarter 2016 dividend of $2.275 per share of common stock consists of a special cash dividend of $1.90 per share of common stock and a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.375 per share of common stock. The $1.90 per share special distribution is treated as paid in two tax years for income tax purposes: $1.587 is treated as paid on December 31, 2016 and $0.313 is treated as paid on January 13, 2017. The $0.375 per share regular quarterly distribution is considered a 2017 dividend distribution for income tax purposes.

Common Stock [Member]

Class of Stock [Line Items]

Reconciliation of dividends declared to dividends paid

The unaudited income tax treatment for the dividends to common stockholders reportable for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017 as identified in the table above was as follows:



	Year Ended December 31,
Shares of Common Stock	2019				2018				2017
Ordinary income ⁽¹⁾	$	0.939	49.95	%	$	1.474	83.73	%	$	1.356	70.87	%
Qualified dividend	0.004		0.21		0.003		0.19		0.002		0.11
Return of capital	0.312		16.62		0.275		15.64		0.344		18.00
Capital gains ⁽²⁾	0.600		31.93		0.008		0.44		—		—
Unrecaptured section 1250 gains	0.025		1.29		—		—		0.211		11.02
	$	1.880	100.00	%	$	1.760	100.00	%	$	1.913	100.00	%

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(1)

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted on December 22, 2017 generally allows a deduction for noncorporate taxpayers equal to 20% of ordinary dividends distributed by a REIT (excluding capital gain dividends and qualified dividend income). The amount of dividend eligible for this deduction is referred to as the Section 199A Dividend. For the year ended December 31, 2019, the Section 199A Dividend is equal to the total ordinary income dividend.

(2)

Capital gains are comprised entirely of 20% rate gains.