How to report interest income on foreign bank accounts

[KarenJ2]

Please try all 1s as the Payer ID and see if that will work.

[Andythewall]

Is there no way to disable it? What if all 1s is an actual entity. Wiki says the first two digits indicate that geographical area in the us the entity exists. If we put all 1s, then 11- would mean that the bank is in Austin. It’s not in Austin, it’s overseas. This doesn’t seem right to do. Is this what Turbo Tax Intuit Tax CPA would recommend to do?

[Andythewall]

Here is what I was able to find out from one of TTs CPA. 

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/received-interest-from-foreign-bank-what-do-i-put...

[LinaJ2020]

Can you try to enter 18?

@SabrinaK

[Garima]

Did you get an answer to that?

[LinaJ2020]

Technically, you would enter a Form 1099 for interest, dividends to create a Schedule B.  However, with a foreign entity, you would not have a US FEIN to qualify for the e-file.  For the workaround, I would suggest you enter the information under Other Income in the program.  To the IRS, as long as the total amount is reported on your taxes as Other income on line 7a Form 1040, you should be Okay. 

To report it under Other Income so that you will be able to e-file.  Here are the steps:

In TurboTax online,

• Sign in to your account, select Pick up where you left off
• To the right upper corner, in the search box, type in "other reportable income" and Enter
• Select Jump to other reportable income
• Next screen, Other Wages Received, select No to continue
• Next screen, scroll down all the way to the bottom, under Other reportable income, select Start
• Next screen, Any Other Taxable Income? select Yes to continue
• Enter a description and the amount.

[geauga]

TURBO MANAGEMENT

MOST URGENT

In last ten years, using Turbo, we used to leave the payer  ID section blank for filling interest income earned in a foreign bank because  foreign banks in foreign countries are not under USA.  They do not issue 1099 Int.  But, this year, Turbo gives an error at the time of federal review and it insists that we must enter payer ID (FEIN) in the box. 

I called CA Turbo CA and asked her to fix the error in review.  She failed to do anything about it. I checked with another tax website.  There was no such problems in other websites. So, I am quite certain that a programmer or developer made a small error in programming and it must be corrected ASAP.  

I know several people who have interest income in foreign banks.  All of them will face similar problems. I, therefore, urge Turbo management to ask some competent programmer to fix this error.  Please take it MOST URGENT.  Thanks

[LinaJ2020]

You can still e-file with the error on the EIN.  Skip the error and follow prompts to proceed.

If it doesn't work, report it under "Other Income" as directed above.

@geauga

[geauga]

I do not think we can report foreign interest income as "Other Income".  Interest incomes - within USA or from a foreign bank in a foreign country, should be reported on Schedule B.  I am wondering why TURBO programmers are not able to fix this simple problem in federal review or template for 1099 Int.  Many customers of Turbo reported this issue. I know many people are not happy with TURBO because of this issue.   I request Turbo programmers should address this issue ASAP. 

[baabaablacksheep]

Hi Margaret, would I have to report foreign interest income for a foreign bank account only if that interest income was over 10 USD (since in the US, banks only send you a 1099-INT if they paid you interest over $10)? Or would I have to report it no matter the amount?

[KarenJ2]

You need to report the interest no matter what the amount.  That is true also for US bank interest.  It is just that the banks don't need to send you a 1099-INT statement if  interest if it is less than $10, but you still need to report the interest if you know it.

[stephend]

It seems that as others have stated in the 1099-INT section TT is now requiring you to enter a Federal Identification Number (FEIN) for all reported interest.  Of course interest from foreign banks don't have a FEIN but TT keeps reporting an error for the missing field.

So foreign interest can't go here - so where should it be reported instead?

[DaveF1006]

Here is an alternate method you can use to report foreign interest according to this Turbo Tax link.

1. Click on Federal on the left hand side of the screen
2. Click on Wages & Income
3. Scroll down and click on All Income if Needed
4. Scroll down to Less Common Income
5. Scroll down to Miscellaneous Income, Click Start
6. Scroll down to Other reportable Income
7. Click start
8. Enter description and amount

[amit173]

What was the final outcome of this? Do you leave the tax id 99-9999, blank or something else for the interest from foreign bank? Thank you for the help.

[AMKW]

I am really confused and have a few questions, one quite basic, the others more involved:

- When I report my interest earned from a foreign bank account, do I report the net amount (i.e. minus taxes already paid)? 

- Like everyone else, I'm confused about where I actually enter this amount. I went through all the steps for the foreign asset section and then at the question about where it is reported, went with the recommendation to wait for the preview step to see where to report it, but I can't get there because it asks me to "review" that detail?

- I also keep trying to enter the foreign tax credit, but it keeps putting the amount in the wrong place?

Any help is very much appreciated!!

Alison