follow up
the so-called election is selected on form 6251, which is the form for the AMT. (and you won't find it on the worksheet for 6251, only the main form itself).
i did go back and look at form 6251 for year 2019. (the two questions are the same for both years) as follows:
"A. in the first tax year after 1997 that the ftc was claimed, was the Simplified AMT FTC Limitation elected?
box: left blank (so, no, it seems i never elected it until yr 2019). This is the first year: yes or no? (i elected yes, and was able to efile without problem)
"B. Elect to use the Simp. FTC Limitation this year? yes or no (i elected yes last year)
[as i was reviewing what i elected for year 2019, i decided to just change it to No, No, as if i had never elected the simplified limitation. i doubt this will solve my 2020 problem (unless you start over for 2020 and re-import your 2019 tax return .. that would probably work but probably not worth the effort of re-entering all of 2020)]
i tried a couple of different ways of selecting / not selecting on this section of 6251 in the Forms section (not the step by step). so far, i have not succeeded in efiling regardless of how i ticked these yes / no boxes.
it's possible i have other issues with form 1116 but turbotax is not able to find them, other than the loop of the simplified ftc election issue. ttax says to go back and look for "data in the return is missing or invalid" --
in relation to 1116. (without pinpointing the problem, which is so aggravating because that's why we buy this software!!! to fill out these forms for us!!!)
the suggestion to reduce one's foreign taxes to $600 so you don't have to file 1116 is a good one. however, that amount is for marrieds, and i am single so the limit is $300. i'm not willing to lose, in my case, $463 in additonal foreign tax credit owing to this problem. therefore, it looks increasingly like i will print out a 100 page return and mail it in. (frankly, i had a feeling my efile would fail since my return is overly long this year but i never imagined it would be because of this "simplified" election issue).
the person who said a cpa said you can't efile if you have multi country is wrong. for mutual funds, you select "various" as the country source. i've been doing that for years with ftc, and never any issue with being rejected for efile. irs has all your copies of form 1099 div electronically, and they all report it as various in this case so irs if fully aware of this matter.
that being said, the irs really does need to develop a simplified form 1116. it's the most complex form out there. i've spent far too many hours over the years on this form, and turbotax is very bad at helping you get it right. and after all that work, all you get, for most of us, is probably under $1000 back.
you know what is most aggravating is: going thru the federal review and being told my return has no errors. and then transmitting my returns to be told my return has errors!!!! and then having turbotax tell me they will "help me" fix my return. and then finding turbotax is unable to fix my return, no, not at all!!
fyi, if you live in calif and don't like paying $25 to efile in calif, there are other options. i always print my calif return anyway, and i drop it off at the dropboxes at the Board of Equalization. so at least there is no postage to pay, only laser toner and paper cost. if you live in the Sacramento area, the BOE is on Power Inn Rd. Go up to the second floor and look for the dropbox for the Franchise Tax Board in the middle of the room.
