[TurboTax][Form 1116][Foreign Tax] Country for Dividend Income from INDIVIDUAL Foreign Stocks

[marcuscato]

I am going through the interview questions for TurboTax premier, web version in the context of Foreign Tax Credit (FTC) and Form 1116. I had a few INDIVIDUAL (NOT mutual fund) FOREIGN stocks that reported dividend income in my 1099-DIV provided by my brokerage. For the reported foreign dividend income, I am being asked country.

For mutual funds, it is clear that I can pick "RIC (Regulated Investment Company)". But I am not clear about INDIVIDUAL stocks held outside of mutual funds (within the same brokerage as the mutual funds).

I read online that for INDIVIDUAL foreign stocks that are from a recognized brokerage (Fidelity, Vanguards etc), I can just pick "RIC" instead of listing out every country. Is this true? I am happy to report it country by country but TurboTax has some UI issues that are not allowing me to do that and doesn't look like my tax refund changes either way. Please advise.

[marcuscato]

cc @Daffodill @crsimon53 @DianeW @Anonymous_ @turquoise19 @pete39 @pruizjunco @Anonymous given this may be useful to you or someone you know.

[DianeW777]

For purposes of making your data entry into TurboTax, if you own an Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) (not an exchange-traded note (ETN), or a commodity-ETF however), you can safely use the designation RIC for purposes of labeling the dividends for foreign tax credit purposes (and for completing Form 1116, the foreign tax credit form).

Most ETFs are registered with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) as investment companies under the Investment Company Act of 1940.  And so, just like traditional open-end mutual funds, that makes them RICs (Registered Investment Companies) for legal and tax purposes.

[rogge1722]

In addition to ETF's and mutual funds which are (RIC), if you are holding individual stocks usually thru ADR's from a domestic broker, the dividends are foreign sourced, so they would be included in form 1116 separately based on the country of origin.