Hello! I am hoping someone can help me.
I am a US citizen living abroad who will pass the physical presence test and is filling out Form 2555 for the foreign income exclusion. I worked IN the US in 2023 and from March to June worked specifically as a freelance writer, for which I have a 1099-NEC.
I moved abroad in August 2023 and have lived in the foreign country since.
I've filled out both Schedule SE, Schedule 2 and Schedule C to account for my self-employment period. I am working on Schedule 1.
Line 44, Form 2555 has me stumped. I keep reading through its instructions and pages 22 to 25-ish of Publication 54, but I'm still unsure what it means. My understanding is, page 22 of Publication 54 (third column) says self-employment deductions must be account for here. I take this to mean the "deduction for one-half of self-employment tax" calculated from Schedule SE line 13.
But Form 2555's instructions say this amount must be those "that aren't allowed because they are allocable to the excluded income. This applies only to deductions definitely related to the excluded earned income" (p.6). So, is my self-employment from Schedule SE line 13 unrelated to the foreign income BECAUSE I earned it while in the US and separate from my current employer and position? ... I think that would make more sense because on Schedule 1 I deduct my entire self-employment profit (line 3) line 8d for line 10 anyway, and mark the self-employment adjustment from Schedule 1 line 26 onto Form 1040, line 10, so to have this amount (line 13 of Schedule SE) subtracted AGAIN from the figure (Form 1040 line 8-9) for line 11 on Form 1040 doesn't seem to make sense to me. It would seem that I've accounted for the deduction twice.
Therefore, I think I should put "0" on line 44, Form 2555, but I wanted to make sure. I assume this is because my self-employment income was not related in any way to my foreign income?
Thank you so much for any help you can give me! I really appreciate it.
