Because I work overseas and pay taxes there, I can take the Foreign Tax Credit. If I take the simplified FTC, I count only the foreign income tax that I paid. If I instead take the itemized deduction, could I count more of my foreign expenses in addition to the foreign income tax?
For example, I have rent for my foreign lodgings, health insurance payments, commuting costs.
I am not self-employed. I realize that these examples are usually not deductible when the tax payer is an employee at a company in the US. But can they be included as itemized deductions when one is working abroad?