Easy? Foreign Tax Credit ??

[neal6]

I am using TT Premier for 2023.  In 2023 I had perhaps 20 mutual funds and ETFs spread across 

4 brokerage firms (yike !).  Many of these had foreign positions for which foreign taxes were paid.

TT downloaded all the Composite 1099 forms, so it has the basic data.

When I used the TT Q&A to get the credit (perhaps $500 total, at most)  I was drawn into this circle of:

"Income from Foreign Countries"  --> Various ->  "Report Income" or "Done".  

Report Income for all these investments individually is hopeless.

I chose "Done", then back to "Income from Foreign Countries".

I could see that some credit is being accumulated so I presume TT is going through all the places

where Foreign Income was reported in all my 1099's, and I just had to continue to go round

and round until TT had gone through all of them.

Is this a correct interpretation ?

I recall it was easier in past years.  Is there not just some quicker way through this ?

Thanks for any help

[rogge1722]

You only have one country, "RIC", (regulated investment company) for all mutual funds/ETF's. On a spreadsheet in row 1, insert the total "Foreign Ordinary Dividends" from all 4 brokerage firms. In row 2, insert the total "Foreign Qualified Dividends". In row 3, insert the total foreign tax paid from all box 7's.

Since TT sees the foreign tax paid in all box 7's, here is a suggested way to avoid going thru multiple 1099's during the interview. Bring up a blank 1099-DIV. Name the payer XYZ and in box 1a insert the ordinary dividends from the spreadsheet. In box 1b, insert the qualified dividends from the spreadsheet. In box 7, insert the foreign tax paid from the spreadsheet. On the actual 1099's, delete the same amount form box 1a and 1b. You can delete from one or more, it doesn't matter. Delete the foreign tax paid in box 7. When you go thru the interview, TT only sees the fictitious 1099-DIV and it will populate Column A on one f1116.