Form 1116 Foreign Take Credit - Category Income and Applicable Taxes

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I am a Greencard holder in the UK, and i am trying to accurately complete my Form 1116. Foreign Tax Credit.

I have entered my foreign income (wages) and my capital gains (8949) in my 1040 initially.  Then i have moved on to Form 1116 to claim my FTC.

My income and taxes is the following for each income bucket:

1. General Income

• UK Salary: $107982
• UK Taxes: $ 24342
• US Taxes: $16015
• FTC applied: $16015

2. Passive Income

• Crypto Sale (Capital Gains): $1438
• GGT: $0 ( UK has a personal exemption of GBP 6k / year)
• US Taxes: $196
• FTC applied: $0

The problem i have got is i am getting no credit towards the Crypto sale. My general income UK taxes are way more than the US equivalent and i have a large carryforward. However I can not apply a FTC for my capital gains as i did not directly pay any tax to this income category, as you receive a GBP 6k personal allowance in the UK.

It just seems a little unfair as a 1040 tax return just accumulates all the taxes into one bucket, however the FTC has to be applied from different buckets, so although i have paid way more UK tax in total, i can't apply it to the Capital Gains tax.

Have i completed from 1116 correctly? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[jtax]

The FTC is by category. So that fact that you paid no foreign tax on capital gains (the passive category on the 1116)  and that you had no other passive income means you are not double taxed and cannot get a foreign tax credit for that. Just be glad that US capital gains taxes are so incredibly low. 

You might try using the foreign earned income exclusion instead of the FTC to deal with your foreign salary income. That might be better, though I don't think so. These is an area of taxes that is incredibly complicated so I like to try it both ways and see what works best.