GiseleD
Expert Alumni

Deductions & credits

Here's how to leverage either the Foreign Tax Credit or deduction. Both the credit and the deduction are entered in the same place. Here's what you do:

  1. Make sure you've entered all your foreign income.
  2. From within your return, search for foreign tax credit and select the Jump to link in the search results.
  3. Answer Yes to Did you pay foreign taxes in 2019 or have credits to use from a prior year?
  4. Follow the instructions to get the credit or deduction.

In most cases, taking the credit works out better than the deduction. We'll help you decide which one's best for you when you go through this section.

If you choose to take the credit (most people do), we'll attach Form 1116Foreign Tax Credit if your situation requires it.

 

Note: You won't be able to take a credit or deduction for taxes paid (or accrued) on excluded foreign earned income or housing. This is because excluded income and housing isn't taxed in the first place.

 

The original article can be found here

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