Retirement tax questions

Hi Thomas,

Thank you for taking the time to work with me on this.  Know that I have no trouble navigating around TT, I've been using it for decades and I'm very used to it.  Yes, I see the screens you have sent screen shots of and I can make all the entries you are making.  Unfortunately I'm not seeing the same results from TT that you are.  

My foreign taxes held back in previous years are from more recent years than 2013.  I'm aware of the fact that the foreign tax carry over expires after 10 years.  I tried to copy your example to see if I got the same result as you so I plugged in a foreign tax from 2013 like you did of $2000 (not $10000 like you but a number I might actually have, should get the same result).  I made my 2023 foreign tax paid $100 on $1000 of foreign revenue.  I was hoping that maybe TT would give me the full $100 from 2023 as a credit and additionally move some of the 2013 $2000 to part of 2023 to make it something over $100.  Instead I see on Sch B for 1116 line 5 that (as I expected) the $2000 I entered for 2013 expired, went away.  From line 4 of Sch B form 1116, the foreign tax carry over used in current tax year was $0.

Furthermore, looking at Form 1116 Comp Wks, of the $100 foreign tx paid on $1000 revenue in 2023, TT only utilized $19 in 2023 and held back $81!  What the ???  Why don't I at least get the whole foreign tax paid in 2023 back in this example?

I don't understand why in your example the $10,000 foreign tax carryover you created didn't similarly expire like mine did.  When I do your test, $0 are moved from 2013 (or any previous year) to a 2023 tax credit, instead all of the 2013 amount expires, and nothing is moved from any previous year to this year, in fact some of this year's foreign tax paid is held back.

Below is a screen shot of my actual foreign tax held back from 2018 to 2022.  Also the $2000 amount I stuck into 2013 trying to duplicate your test.  Before entering the 2013 test, i.e. with 2013 as $0, I tried various combinations of foreign tax paid and foreign revenue for this year, 2023.  The best I could get was coaxing TT to move a few dollars from the 2018 amount to 2023.

Can you replicate my actual foreign tax withheld numbers from 2018 to 2022 and then come up with a foreign tax paid on foreign revenue earned combination in 2023 that causes TT to move all of the foreign tax withheld from 2018-22 forward to a 2023 tax credit?  Or is there some other way to get TT to move the foreign tax held back in 2018-22?  

Please stick with me and help me out.  

Thank you very much for helping me with this,

Darby