Is anyone else having problems with foreign earned income and taxes/

[msignalness]

I don't see the foreign earned income excluding and when I entered my tax amount into the tax credit section, it was suddenly in "generation-skipping taxes" when I went back to double check.

[pk]

Lets start from the start--- Are you talking foreign earned income and exclusion? Why do you foreign tax -- is this on             un-excluded income or from passive income like  mutual funds  or what ?  What country?  When did you establish your foreign tax home?  When did you  arrive at the foreign country?  Is this your first year ?

Assuming that you entered the foreign earned income  under  "Other less common .... ", it should have filled at a form 2555 and thereby show the excluded income  on Schedule 1, line 21 ( with a negative sign ) and a note  showing where it came from.  Is this not what you are seeing ?

[msignalness]

Hi There,

Am a long term expat in NL so am qualified for the income exclusion under bonafide residence/presence.  Have used the same format last year and normally the income exclusion kicks things down but this year my tax owed oddly went up.  Additionally went I fill in tax info under uncommon/foreign tax the inputs are coming up in the line item below (specifically in generation skipping gifts). Have deleted and replicated this issue a few times and it seems like a software bug as I’m quite sure I’m starting out where I’m meant to but the inputs are being misattributed somehow.  Just wondering if anyone else is seeing this?

[pk]

Give me some more details , please  ( make up figures would be fine ) -- I would duplicate your scenario to see what is causing this issue.  Where does this generation skip come from ?  Did you make any gifts or what ?   What I need  are the types of income and approximate figures, filing status etc. You said you are approved by the IRS for  BonaFide  resident or you are using physical presence ?

[msignalness]

Hi Again,

No clue where the generation skip is coming from - I've not made or received any gifts and the field should be empty as I've not filled it in myself.

What's happening is if I go into Federal>Deductions & Credits>Foreign Taxes for editing and go through the foreign credit track I eventually get to itemized deductions.  If I put in my number (for these purposes, let's say 50k) and finalize that flow, on the summary screen my Foreign Taxes come up as $0.

However, the line item below on the summary screen is "Other deductible expenses" which should be empty but reflects the exact amount I input in my itemized deductions for foreign taxes (in this case 50k).  If I click "edit" it asks me to "Tell us about your generation-skipping taxes
For each gift that you paid generation-skipping taxes on, enter the description and amount."

This shouldn't be the case as I haven't input any generation skipping taxes nor do I have any to claim.   It's quite odd which is why I'm wondering if it is a software glitch.

On the foreign income exclusion, I've not tried it both ways (physical presence test - 3 days last year stateside, 0 for business) and the bonafide resident with the same results - the exclusion doesn't appear to be applied.   Have never revoked the claim either and we've been abroad 10+ years.

Any ideas?