My W2 not show breakdown of Assignment Allowances, like Housing

[Rmunsee]

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

[pk]

@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 ?

[Rmunsee]

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.... 

[pk]

@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.