Ruta
Level 2

Foreign Tax Credit vs Itemizing: What foreign expenses can I itemize?

Because I work overseas and pay taxes there, I can take the Foreign Tax Credit.  If I take the simplified FTC, I count only the foreign income tax that I paid.  If I instead take the itemized deduction, could I count more of my foreign expenses in addition to the foreign income tax?

 

For example, I have rent for my foreign lodgings, health insurance payments, commuting costs.

 

I am not self-employed.  I realize that these examples are usually not deductible when the tax payer is an employee at a company in the US.  But can they be included as itemized deductions when one is working abroad?