How can I record the partial refund of foreign income taxes I have paid

[revbling]

I read in one post that if the foreign tax refund only affects the carryover amount on my USA return, then it is not necessary to file an amended return. I need some clarification here. I have lived in and paid taxes to a country in Europe since 2015. I did not claim any foreign tax credit for 2015, 2016, and 2017 because I owed no USA tax. I did not realize there was a carryforward provision. In 2018 and 2019, I recorded the foreign tax "paid or accrued" and offset this against a very tiny USA tax liability for each of those two years. Subsequently, I received large partial income tax refunds from the foreign country because they required me to make excessively large advance (estimated) payments. Even so, I have still paid far more foreign tax in 2015, 2016, and 2017 than the two tiny USA tax liabilities already mentioned. I have all the documents to substantiate this. Can I simply make the lump sum adjustment in 2020 so as to make the total 2015-to-date carryforward correct? I owe zero USA tax for 2020, so I will not use any of the carryforward for 2020. I really want to avoid filing amended returns. That is very time-consuming and expensive, especially since there will be zero effect on my USA taxes. Will the TurboTax program accept a negative entry in the foreign income tax paid field? Thanks!

[pk]

@revbling , first US tax filings and reconciliations are per year -- thus  for example  --

your foreign wages /earnings for 2018  was 210,000 and you were able to exclude 109,000  ( dummy figure for the max for the year). This would mean that foreign taxes on 101,000 that you paid to Germany may be eligible  for tax credit against  US taxes on the same  gross income.  Say now  the US tax on this 101,000 is 20,000 while Germany  withheld 25,000 on the same  income but ultimately settled for 21,000 --- in this case you either wait and file the USA  return when the German return is finalized  ( but generally not past the end of the year 2019) or  file US return with provisional German tax figure and then  file an amended 2018 with the final German Tax figure.  But you cannot  include  the final figure in 2019 as an adjustment.

And -- foreign taxes paid is recognized  dollar for dollar, the allowable amount for the year is limited by the  US tax liability.  Un-allowed amounts can be carried back one year and forward for 10 years but ONLY when there is foreign earnings  are present.

Does this make sense ?   Is there more I can do for you ?