Foreign Assets that generate dividends

[WaltCulver]

My foreign dividends come only from publicly traded stock. How do I determine total adjusted investment assets that generate the foreign dividends on Form 1116 ?

[pk · Accepted solution]

@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]

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