Generally, you can take a foreign tax credit in the tax year you paid or accrued the foreign taxes, depending on your method of accounting. If you report on the cash basis, you can choose to take the credit for accrued taxes by checking the “Accrued” box in Part II on a timely filed original return. You can’t make this choice on an amended return. Once you choose to do this, you must credit foreign taxes in the year they accrue on all future returns.
