I think the onus here is mostly on the IRS for making the 1116 calculation so bizarrely complicated (looking at some earlier posts in this thread). It would really make sense to create a simpler process for individual taxpayers who have nothing but mutual fund foreign dividends and taxes... and let the millionaires and corporations (or their accountants) deal with the full complexity. But that's the hazard of our weird tax code: it's an enormous kloodge with layer upon layer of fixes intended to prevent sneaky accountants from gaming the rules for rich people. Regular taxpayers are just collateral damage (and TurboTax and its peers can earn nice money dealing with the insane complexity).
That said, for this particular situation, TurboTax doesn't help much, and also demands entries into fields even when none are needed, it seems. I expect that my past years' Form 1116s are all completely wrong, but it's always just a few dollars involved, so if the IRS ever comes after me, well, I'll just ask them what they think I owe, or they do. This year, it seemed that the foreign tax deduction, much simpler to calculate, is so much easier that I don't even care if it costs me $20 in taxes (and that's the amount, truly).
