I have rent income in Germany, which I filed in the US. I heard I should have filed in GER and here only file the tax I paid there. Where I can I enter taxes paid abroad?

[simon-bamberger]

I have rent income in Germany. For 2014, I filed that income in the US with my normal tax declaration. Now I learned I should have filed that income in Germany, and in the US only mention / file the tax that I paid over there, as part of the double taxation agreement between Germany and the US. In order to avoid double taxation, I probably now need to amend my US tax declaration for 2014. Can you confirm that this is right, and if so, where I can enter taxes paid abroad?

[bine22]

Based on Article 6 of the Germany-US tax treaty, the rental income is only taxable in Germany. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-trty/germany.pdf

you would enter the income on your US tax return, but also enter it as negative income under misc. income and attach form 8833 to claim the tax treaty exemption.

[simon-bamberger]

Thank you so much, this is super helpful!

[makne1975]

I have a very similar situation with rental income from Germany and an otherwise fairly straightforward US tax situation.  

Claiming the tax treaty exemption sounds like the way to go but I am at a loss on how to complete form 8833. @simon-bamberger did you get through with form 8833 and can you maybe share some guidance or an example?

Also, in a tax treaty exemption scenario would I simply enter the gross rental income (and exclude the same via an identical negative income) and thus would not need to itemize related expenses in the US tax return (thus saving some effort)...