Can I only use a foreign tax credit carry-back/carry-over in past or future years in which I have paid foreign income tax?

[JohnR1 · Accepted solution]

You can utilize the foreign tax credit carryback/carryover in years in which you have foreign income in the same category as the foreign tax credit carryovers - irrespective of whether a foreign tax has been paid in that tax year or not.

There are different categories of foreign income, for purposes of claiming the Form 1116 Foreign Tax Credit, as follows:

• Passive category income
• General category income
• Section 901(j) income
• Certain income re-sourced by treaty
• Lump-sum distributions

A separate foreign tax credit may be claimed on Form 1116 for each category of income, with the exception of Section 901(j) - no credit is permitted for taxes paid to certain sanctioned countries under IRS Section 901(j)

For more information, please see the instructions to Form 1116:

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1116.pdf

Please also see the following TurboTax guide, "Filing IRS Form 1116 to Claim the Foreign Tax Credit":

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/General-Tax-Tips/Filing-IRS-Form-1116-to-Claim-the-Fo...