Foreign Tax Paid is a NEGATIVE number. How do we enter that in TurboTax?

[pkaufmanmd]

Schwab reported a negative number for "Foreign Tax Paid" on one of our accounts. TurboTax would not allow us to enter a negative number--even directly on the form. How can we enter this?

[Critter-3]

You cannot have negative taxes paid ...  did the foreign government pay you for making income ???    Ask  schwab what this means ... maybe you got a refund of foreign taxes paid in a prior tax year giving you a negative entry.  

[Mike9241]

I would just ignore it. but if you want more info look at the 1099 that Schwab sent you or you can download it from your account.  is it the latest one (corrected) because frequently Schwab will issue revised forms? one year I didn't get the last revision until November of the following year. about 2 months after the extended due date of the 1040. on the 1099 index, under Supplemental info, there will be a page that lists FTC by stock and lists the foreign income for that stock. then you can call Schwab for further details. I have to say that in over 50 years of tax preparation for clients I have never seen a 1099 with negative FTC.

[BoulderEric]

I just had the same experience, Schwab 1099 reporting negative foreign tax. It might be a refund from some previous year, although Schwab doesn't say one way or the other. And yeah, Turbotax won't let me go in by hand and type in a negative number.  It's what I'd like to do because another my brokerage reported positive foreign tax, larger in magnitude and I'd like to just combine the negative Schwab number with the positive number from the other place and just claim a reduced but still positive foreign tax credit.

[BoulderEric]

Ah. Figured it out.   The foreign tax paid is actually positive number, but at a certain place in the statement it appears as a negative number because that tax paid is a subtraction from my account balance.