Can income declared overseas be deducted from my U.S. taxes? (This is income unrelated to that which appears on a W-2 form)

[mori-sandy]

While living in Japan, we declared part of our retirement income received in the U.S.  The purpose of this was to be fair to the Japanese government which would have otherwise given us virtually "free" healthcare, despite our ability to pay.  We declared an amount and were taxed here in Japan on our U.S. income.  In effect, we paid the taxes on that income both in the U.S. and in Japan.

[BillM223]

The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion applies only to earned income, which your retirement funds are not.

So your only option is to go for the Foreign Tax Credit, where you can take a credit for taxes paid to Japan on income that you also paid tax on in the US.

Do a Search (upper right) for foreign tax credit and click on the jump-to link (Mac users must find foreign tax credit in the Topics List). NOTE: just type foreign tax credit and hit Enter; ignore any and all suggested Search terms.