In the Foreign Tax Credit Carryover Section, what does Amount Used mean? I was not aware in previous years that I was eligible for a credit for the Foreign Tax I paid.

[taxes2017cam]

Foreign Taxes verses Amount Used?

[ShirlynW]

Amount Unused is the amount of qualified foreign income taxes you paid or accrued in the year, that cannot be used in the current tax year. You're allowed a carryback and/or carryover of the unused foreign tax on income included under section 951A.

Qualified foreign taxes without filing Form 1116 if you meet all of the following requirements:

• All of your foreign source income is passive income, such as interest and dividends,
• All of your foreign source income and the foreign income taxes are reported to you on a qualified payee statement, such as Form 1099-INT, Form 1099-DIV, or Schedule K-1 from a partnership, S corporation, estate or trust, and,
• The total of your qualified foreign taxes isn't more than the limit given in the Instructions for Form 1040 (and Form 1040-SR)PDF for the filing status you're using, or in the Instructions for Form 1040-NRPDF (if filing Form 1040-NR).

[parish-angela]

This doesn't really answer the question. What do you mean by "...cannot be used in the current tax year"? What would stop all a foreign tax from being used in a current tax year?

[AmyC]

The short answer is gross income ratio and amount of foreign tax.

1) then a ratio is computed of foreign source income (line 1a)  to gross income (line 2e) = line 2f

2) 2f is then multiplied by the amount on 3c = line 6

3) line 1a is reduced by line 6 to come up with net foreign income line 7

4) line 7 is divided by taxable income (line 18) to come up with a ratio line 19

5) your FTC is then line 19 multiplied by your tax (line 16) or if smaller the amount of your FTC.

For a longer answer, see  here.

@parish-angela