@WaltCulver , many mutual funds invest in foreign/emerging markets. In such cases, the broker's consolidated statement ( way in th back usually ) or from their web site you can find the percentage of foreign investment for the fund by country. This is usually in percentage and so you need to use this and your total investment in the fund to compute your total foreign investment ( at risk capital ), also your foreign dividend income. These two figures plus the t foreign taxes paid are all the things you need to report on form 1116. BTW , if the total amount of foreign taxes paid for this category ( passive income ) is equal or under $300 for single and $600 for MFJ, you can use the safe-harbor rules to not have to use the form 1116 -- this also avoid the foreign tax allowable limitation.
Hope this helps
@WaltCulver , many mutual funds invest in foreign/emerging markets. In such cases, the broker's consolidated statement ( way in th back usually ) or from their web site you can find the percentage of foreign investment for the fund by country. This is usually in percentage and so you need to use this and your total investment in the fund to compute your total foreign investment ( at risk capital ), also your foreign dividend income. These two figures plus the t foreign taxes paid are all the things you need to report on form 1116. BTW , if the total amount of foreign taxes paid for this category ( passive income ) is equal or under $300 for single and $600 for MFJ, you can use the safe-harbor rules to not have to use the form 1116 -- this also avoid the foreign tax allowable limitation.
Hope this helps
PK - That helps a lot. Two questions in follow-up:
1. Since I don't hold any mutual funds, what you say then means I just take the value of my foreign stocks at the end of 2019 and divide that by the value of all my stocks at the end of 2019--and have no "adjustments" to worry about. Do I have that right?
2. How do that data affect my taxes anyway?
Thanks, Walt