You can utilize the foreign tax credit carryback/carryover in years in which you have foreign income in the same category as the foreign tax credit carryovers - irrespective of whether a foreign tax has been paid in that tax year or not.
There are different categories of foreign income, for purposes of claiming the Form 1116 Foreign Tax Credit, as follows:
- Passive category income
- General category income
- Section 901(j) income
- Certain income re-sourced by treaty
- Lump-sum distributions
A separate foreign tax credit may be claimed on Form 1116 for each category of income, with the exception of Section 901(j) - no credit is permitted for taxes paid to certain sanctioned countries under IRS Section 901(j)
For more information, please see the instructions to Form 1116:
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1116.pdf
Please also see the following TurboTax guide, "Filing IRS Form 1116 to Claim the Foreign Tax Credit":
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/General-Tax-Tips/Filing-IRS-Form-1116-to-Claim-the-Fo...
