Example:
My W2 shows I earned X amount.
My employer shows (lease documents), of the X amount, you got Y amount for Foreign Housing Allowance.
TURBOTAX asked for amount I received for living abroad, so I put "Y" in the housing box.
Then, my income jumped to X+Y.
How do I correct that?
Ron
@Rmunsee are you talking about W-2 ( i.e. employed in the USA ) or an employer provided earnings statement ( employed / earning/ working abroad) ? Are you US citizen/ Resident ( Greencard )?
Generally the foreign earned income ( for exclusion purposes ) includes all payments the employer made to you or on your behalf. Thus your wages, any foreign taxes paid by the employer, housing assistance, cost of living adjustments etc. , while collected by the TurboTax under different headings ( per IRS requirements ), are all summed up for the eligible foreign earnings. So if you entered X as your wages and Y as the housing and other payments to you or on your behalf by the employer you total foreign earned income is X + Y.
BY the way which country are you talking about i.e. your tax home? How long have you been there?
Does that make sense ?
Sorry for not being clear.
US Citizen
Employed by US Firm (not the US Government)
Actual work performed on US Army base in S. Korea
The tax home is by definition, the US. The Korea government does not receive any taxes; our Visa for being in S. Korea is based on "SOFA Status" or Status of Forces Agreement.
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I'm not doing it right in TruboTax. I give up....
@Rmunsee thank you for your answers to my questions.
If your W-2 covers the whole amount spent by the employer i.e. includes the housing assistance, then just show the W-2 amount as your total remuneration and not show the housing .
Have you been in S Korea long enough to qualify for the Physical Presence Test ? It is only then that you can exclude the amount. Note that the exclusion is generally for the purposes of avoiding double taxation -- if S. Korea is not taxing the amount then this amount may not be excludable.
Need to do some research on the subject.