Form 1116 LIne 3b Column a asks for a detailed explanation. What are they asking for here?

[chuck524]

Under "fix errors" the Turbo Tax program asked me to provide a detailed explanation for form 116 line 3b column a.  What are they looking for?

[rogge1722]

TT wants a description of the deduction posted on line 3b. Possible examples might be alimony payment or medical expense, etc.

[potentilla]

i don't know where TT gets this number. Last year, not knowing where the number came from i put  for the explanation: "Balance of deductions from income not claimed as definitely related on line 2" . And i worked so far! I sure would appreciate a more valid response.  TT must be pulling it from somewhere.

[ThomasM125]

Those expenses would have been entered by you when you went through the foreign tax credit section in TurboTax. You would see a screen that says Definitely Related Expenses and you would be asked to enter a Description, Amount, Country, and Deduction Type.

On the next screen you would see a screen that says Explanation of Expenses on which you are requested to enter an explanation for the expenses.

[potentilla]

actually, i think i figured it out by reading https://sftaxcounsel.com/demystifying-irs-form-1116-calculating-foreign-tax-credits/

3a for me is $10000 because the SALT are capped at 10000. Thus, the other deductions are state taxes that went over the 10000 limit ( I live in NYS)! Thus, are balance of my deductions i am not allowed to claim on line 2. So, i added "These are deductions beyond the $10,000 SALT limit."

[rgbtoo]

It seems that the number Turbotax uses came from line 26 of schedule 1 (2021 tax year) that sums up the adjustments to income.  In my case, it was just the deductible part of a self-employment tax. 

[one2go]

I agree.   For me, Form 1116 line 3b (other deduction) was also equal to Schedule 1 line 26 (adjustments to income), so the explanation should describe all the component details of that line.  For me, the only component was Schedule 1 line 13 (Health Savings Account deduction), so "HSA deduction" is my explanation.

[KR59]

You're correct. I called the TurboTax help line and someone actually walked me through the fix in 2 mins!!

For anyone with this issue, double click on the number which is in that row/column and it takes you to where it was first input (perhaps automatically). All you need to do is copy or repeat the statement that you see on the left of the form! Ridiculous that the software cannot do this automatically! In my case it was " remaining deduction from Federal return" or something like that. That's all it took!!

Good luck!