How do I report errors in the way TurboTax fills out form 2555 foreign earned income. I think nobody at TurboTax has tested it.

[LenaH]

Can you confirm what your issue is so we can investigate it further? Please tag me in your response so I get notified directly. 

[GeneraleJDC]

Form 2555

12 b If “Yes,” who and for what period?  There are several choices but not Spouse and Children.

In 17 Enter your principal country of employment during your tax year. Netherlands show up as an error in final review.

In 18 the text generated Physically present in a foreign country or countries for the entire 12 month period  Shows up as an error in the final review.

Generally there is no explanation on how the amount are calculated.

A minor point is the Social Security Number for the spouse in 1040. I have to correct the PDF and enter Non-Resident Alien.

How to Tag?   Tag LenaH Employee Tax Expert

[mesquitebean]

Here's how to tag.   Type @ then in the popup choose from the list of users in the thread or name another user.  When successful, it shows up as a blue link.

In this case @LenaH   .   (I just tagged the employee, so you won't have to.)

[pk]

@GeneraleJDC , while cannot answer as to how many people , whom and how the product was tested this particular year , I do have participated in  Beta testing in years before  ( I focus only on foreign/ international  features ).   Forgetting this , I would need to know from you your scenario to be able to confirm  where TurboTax is being  "stupid".

(a)  Are you US person ( citizen/GreenCard ) ?

(b) From your post it  sounds ;like your spouse is NRA -- yes ?.   How about your child ?

(c) Are you planning to file jointly  and thereby  expose  your spouse's income to US taxes?    Is she willing to sign a request for that i.e. to be treated as a US resident ?   Does she have a Tax ID   ( SSN or ITIN )?   How about the child ?   Are you blood related or have adopted the child ?

(d)  For form 2555  and physical presence test  you need a  12  continuous months  ( as a test period ) wherein you have been away from US for a  330 Full Days.   Your current tax year  or part thereof must fall within this test period.   Does that make sense ?   Please tell me when you arrived  abroad ( not when you started work necessarily ).

Please answer my questions and  will circle back 

pk

[GeneraleJDC]

@pk 

Thank you.  Ok  I prepare the taxes for my son who lives and works in the Netherlands. He is married to a single nationality, Dutch, lady. They have 2 children both have dual nationality US and Netherlands, both have SS numbers. His wife has never lived in the US and therefore she does not have a Social Security number.

In form 2555 Line 12B is a drop down. It has Spouse,Child,...Niece, Nephew etc but not Spouse and Children..

in Line 17 Netherlands shows up as an error (or any other country) an error that shows up in the final review.

Line 18 if no travel is the reported during the period it fills out automatically "Physically present in...." and that show up immediately as an error and in the final review.

In Form 1040 line 8 to 12 are calculated correctly but an explanation on how they are calculated should be somewhere.

I hope this will help you fixing these items.

Thank you

[pk]

@GeneraleJDC , first , why are you using Bona-fide  resident    ( which needs IRS approval  but no requirement of 330 days abroad ) rather than  Physical Presence  which does require the 330 days of physical presence test ?  

What are you trying to achieve -- exclusion of foreign  income  or what ?

Do you want to expose  the income of the wife to US taxation ?

Please tell me more about the situation.

pk

[GeneraleJDC]

@pk 

You meet the bona fide residence test if you are a bona fide resident of a foreign country or countries for an

Foreign earned income exclusion - bona fide residence test

You meet the bona fide residence test if you are a bona fide resident of a foreign country or countries for uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year. If you are a calendar year taxpayer, an entire tax year is from January 1st through December 31st. During your period of bona fide residence in a foreign country, you may leave that foreign country for brief or temporary trips back to the United States or elsewhere so long as you clearly intend to return to your foreign residence or to a new foreign bona fide residence without unreasonable delay.

Once you establish bona fide residency in a foreign country for an uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year, you will qualify as a bona fide resident starting with the date you began the residency and ending with the date you abandon your foreign residence. This means you could qualify as a bona fide resident for parts of one or two other tax years in addition to the full tax year(s) of bona fide residency.

You can use the bona fide residence test to qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion, the foreign housing exclusion and/or the foreign housing deduction only if you are either:

• A U.S. citizen, or

My son has been in the Netherlands for 12 years, I think he qualifies as a Bona Fide Resident.

I am not trying to exclude anything, and the wife, not a US citizen or resident is not subject to US taxes, whether she had income or not (she did not).

And I do not like your tone!!   If it is your job to fix the errors in form 2555 just do it !!

[pk]

@GeneraleJDC , please  accept my very  humble apology for  " tone" of my response.  Whereas, my re-reading of my response  failed   identify  anything specifically  designed to offend a reader but I have to admit  that I surely could have done better.  For this  inaptitude on my part , I ask for you to forgive me.   In the future  I will indeed  pay more attention to my response  for possibility of inadvertently hurting  readers.

I was assuming that your son was trying to utilize the Foreign Earned Income  Exclusion in order to reduce  the effects of double taxation.   This is because as a US person  he is taxed by the US on his world income.  Hence the question about  Physical Presence Test  or Bona-fide Resident Test.

The reason for the question  about exposing  his spouse's  foreign income is because  in order for him to file jointly with his NRA spouse,  (a) she must  be a US person  ( be treated as a US resident for tax purposes; (b)  expose her world income to US taxes but can also use FEIE to reduce the effects of double taxation;  ( have a Tax ID  -- generally  SSN or ITIN.  In such  a case  the form 2555  " who lives with you " would include  spouse

If on the other-hand,  the spouse does not wish to expose her  world income to US  taxation, then your son can claim head of household ( with  US citizen  blood-related  or adopted children that live with him).  In such a case the form 2555 only requires " children" in answer to " who lives with you ".  Note that in such a case the wife /spouse is left out because she is NOT a US person.

I hope this makes more sense .   Is there more I can do for you ?

Again please pardon my  errors.

pk

If on the other hand