Thanks for your extremely detailed but for me impossible task. That's because my Broker's supplemental material doesn't include ANY 1099_DIV data, e.g. boxes 1a and 1b in the supplemental material. The only information I have is a single, consolidated 1099-DIV for the entire portfolio and a table listing all the securities by name that paid dividends, whether those dividends were U.S. derived, or foreign country (un-named for RICS or named) derived, the dates and amount of each payment, and in the case of the foreign country derived dividends, the date (and amount if any) of foreign taxes paid in conjunction with each dated dividend payment.
Also, I'm a little confused because your work around didn't address my confusion pertaining to TT's guidance to ensure that the highest dollar value tax paid item is dealt with first. You said to enter all the RICs from both 1099-DIVs as a single consolidated entry. However, that comprises 1 RIC associated with one of the 1099- DIVs and 3 RICs associated with the other 1099-DIV. To clarify, are you suggesting that I create a total of 3 1116 forms, one for all 4 of the RICs, plus one for each of the 2 named country securities that are associated with the same 1099-DIV associated with 3 of the 4 RICs? If so, since the sum of foreign taxes paid by all 4 of the RICs is a larger dollar amount, then my first 1116 should deal with "RIC"?
Finally, it sounds as though I'm going to have to (1) violate the IRS guidance to strictly transfer the numbers from the 1099 onto the tax return form(s) as they appear on the 1099, and (2) try to find the relevant area in a very long and complicated worksheet for each 1116 because TT says to never enter or edit anything directly on the form 1116 but to do all entry work on the associated worksheet. I've done the entire remainder of the return strictly using the interview mode. I'm not a CPA, tax attorney, etc. and use TT because of it's interview mode. I don't trust my ability to follow your directions without messing up something and ending up with a boatload of red flags that currently aren't there. The TT help document, "Special Instructions When Multiple Categories of Foreign Income Are Present" makes it sound to me as though the interview mode should enable the entry of data in my situation and I really only have 1 category of foreign income (passive).
Thanks!
