Turbo Tax doesn't recognize foreign taxes I entered, won't let me file Form 1116 for the Foreign Tax Credit Carryover

[DeathAndTaxesForever]

I paid foreign taxes on dividend income, as listed in Box 7 of my 1099-DIVs. I've entered this info in the income section. But when I go to the Deductions/Credits section and try to go through the Foreign Taxes section, it asks if I have any other foreign income to enter, and when I say no, it says I simply don't qualify for the Foreign Tax Credit. When I click on the "Learn More" link, it gives me the following message: "Based on your answers to the previous questions, it doesn't look like you paid any foreign taxes. This means you aren't eligible for the Foreign Tax Credit this year." Somehow Turbo Tax isn't recognizing the foreign taxes I've entered, so it's not allowing me to go any further in the Foreign Taxes section. I have no tax liability this year, so I can't take advantage of the foreign tax credit and want to carry over the foreign tax credit to next year. How do I get Turbo Tax to generate a Form 1116 when there are no prompts to take me to the Foreign Tax Credit Carryover screen?

I'm using the IRS Free File Program online, which does support Form 1116 (according to Intuit's website).

[rogge1722]

This is easily done on the desktop version, but from the on-line version help is the following:

"To keep the unused portion to use another year, you can complete IRS Form 1116 and include a detailed worksheet to document your carryover (we'll help you do this)."

How they help you do this, I have no idea.

[DeathAndTaxesForever]

Unfortunately, when I called the Turbo Tax support line, the agent tried to put my tax file in the TurboTax desktop version, and it still wouldn't generate a Form 1116. I'm hoping someone else has figured out a way to work around this error in the program.

[SusanY1]

If you haven't yet tried this, I would delete the 1099-DIV that contains the foreign tax entry, and enter it in again.  Once in a while the program just doesn't "see" something, and this solution fixes it when nothing else does. 

To help increase the chances this will work for you, I would suggest clearing your browser cache and cookies and closing your browser after deleting the form.  Then try opening the program again and re-entering the data.  Alternately, you can try launching TurboTax in a different browser or an "Incognito" window after the form is deleted if you prefer to leave your cache and cookies alone. 

In Chrome you can get an incognito window with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+N.

[rogge1722]

In the desktop version, if you have no tax liability and  the foreign tax paid is greater than the $300/600 exemption amount, by going thru the FTC interview, TT will not generate an f1116 because there is no credit but it will insert the unused tax into the f1116 comp. worksheet to be carried over.  If the foreign tax paid is within the exemption amount then any amount not used is considered utilized and lost.  To prevent this, the user goes thru the FTC interview and then opens the Federal Information Worksheet, scrolls down to part 6 and checkmarks the statement to file an f1116 even though not required.  This forces TT to transfer the unused foreign taxes paid from "utilized" to carried over.  Apparently whoever you worked with did not complete the last step.

[SusanY1]

Thank you!  

@rogge1722

[DeathAndTaxesForever]

@rogge1722 I went through the FTC interview on the desktop version, but I don't see where I can open up the Federal Information Worksheet. When I go into Forms mode, there is no 1116 listed.

[DeathAndTaxesForever]

@rogge1722 I found the Federal Information Worksheet and got it to generate a 1116, but it didn't populate the 1116 with my info. Now I'm having to go through each line of instructions to enter everything manually. Is there no way to get TurboTax to auto-populate the info I've entered already?

[DeathAndTaxesForever]

@SusanY1 Thanks for the suggestion. It tried deleting the 1099-DIV entries and re-entering them, but it didn't work. Now I'm working in the desktop version, which did generate a 1116, but it didn't auto-populate my info into it. So now I'm having to work through it line by line manually.