Tax Treatment of Distributions

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Tax Treatment of Distributions [Abstract]

Tax Treatment of Distributions

Tax Treatment of Distributions

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, 2020, 2019 and 2018 as follows: 

	Year Ended December 31,
Dividends	2020		2019		2018
Dividends declared per share of common stock	$	1.970	$	1.910	$	1.790
Less: Dividends declared in the current year and paid in the following year	(0.500)		(0.485)		(0.455)
Add: Dividends declared in the prior year and paid in the current year	0.485		0.455		0.425
Dividends paid per share of common stock	$	1.955	$	1.880	$	1.760

The unaudited income tax treatment for the dividends to common stockholders reportable for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018 as identified in the table above was as follows: 

	Year Ended December 31,
Shares of Common Stock	2020				2019				2018
Ordinary income (1)	$	1.474	75.40	%	$	0.939	49.95	%	$	1.474	83.73	%
Qualified dividend	0.002		0.12		0.004		0.21		0.003		0.19
Return of capital	0.162		8.30		0.312		16.62		0.275		15.64
Capital gains (2)	0.275		14.05		0.600		31.93		0.008		0.44
Unrecaptured section 1250 gains	0.042		2.13		0.025		1.29		—		—
	$	1.955	100.00	%	$	1.880	100.00	%	$	1.760	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, 2020, the Section 199A Dividend is equal to the total ordinary income dividend.

(2)Capital gains are comprised entirely of 20% rate gains.