Putnam determines each fund's taxable income and capital gains after mailing your annual statement. At year-end, it is sometimes necessary for Putnam to adjust a fund's distributions to properly reflect the fund's actual taxable income and capital gain for the year. This process is known as reallocation. For example, in some cases a fund must reallocate ordinary dividends (short-term capital gains) to long-term capital gains. Thus, if a reallocation occurred on a fund in which you have an investment, the information provided on your annual statement and Form 1099-DIV will differ. For tax purposes, you should use your tax forms and not your annual statement.

The IRS requires that short-term capital gains paid by mutual funds be treated as ordinary dividend income on Form 1099-DIV.

Yes. They are taxable whether you take the dividends in cash or reinvest them in additional fund shares.

Qualified dividends are those received by an individual shareholder from domestic or qualified foreign corporations that may be eligible (depending on holding period, etc.) to be taxed at the reduced capital gains tax rates. Review IRS Publication 550 and consult your tax advisor for more information.

If you are subject to the alternative minimum tax (AMT), then this amount needs to be reported as a tax preference item on Form 6251. If the fund invests in certain private activity bonds, then the income subject to the AMT will be shown on Form 1099-DIV.

The IRS requires us to report all income, no matter the age of the account holder. Minors who have earned over a certain dollar amount may be required to file a Federal Income Tax Return. You may want to consult your tax advisor regarding your reporting situation.

Generally, a security must be held more than 61 days of the 121-day holding period surrounding the security's ex-dividend date to qualify for favorable tax treatment of the dividend. With distributions from mutual funds the holding period requirement applies on both the fund level and the shareholder level. This means that in order for a dividend to be qualified, the fund must have held the security for at least 61 days of the 121-day period. On your Form 1099-DIV, Putnam will provide you with the total of qualified dividends, based on the fund's holding period; however, in order for the dividend to actually qualify, you must have also held the mutual fund shares for at least 61 days of the 121-day period. To calculate your holding period, count the number of days you held the shares starting with the day after the shares were purchased. If the shares were sold, count the number of days held, including the date sold.

Nondividend distributions are distributions from your fund which are a return of capital to you. You must reduce your cost (or other basis) by the amount shown in Column 3. However, if you get back all of your cost (or other basis), you must report future nontaxable distributions as capital gains even though Form 1099-DIV shows them as nontaxable. Review Publication 550 for assistance in determining if the amount shown in Column 3 is truly nontaxable to you.

Capital gains distributed from any fund are fully taxable. If the tax-exempt fund in which you invested earned short- or long-term capital gains from the sale of securities held in the fund's portfolio, the fund is required to distribute these capital gains in addition to its regular tax-exempt dividends. The fund must also distribute taxable ordinary income resulting from the sale of certain bonds purchased at a discount by the fund. These taxable distributions, as well as any short-term capital gains are reported to you and the IRS (as required) in Column 1a of your Form 1099-DIV, under Total Ordinary Dividends. Long-term capital gains are reported in Column 2a of your Form 1099-DIV, under Total Capital Gain Distributions. You must include these taxable distributions when preparing your income tax return(s).