Very confused about foreign housing exclusion and employer-provided goods

[xrywzy]

Hello! Last year I moved abroad for my partner's work. We moved to a country with high rents, but were able to live in housing that his employer owns and uses for employees. We still had to pay rent to the employer out of his paycheck, but the rent was somewhat less than we would have had to pay on the open rental market (subsidized). The employer is not US-based and has no US presence.

How do I factor this into our taxes? Does this go on the "Employer-Provided Goods" page? Do I calculate the difference in rent between what we actually paid and what we would have had to pay elsewhere, and call that the "employer-provided" portion? Or is that only referring to housing that is provided full-stop, without paying rent? 

[Anonymous_]

@pk ?

[pk]

@xrywzy  the housing help that you get from the employer is viewed as part of the benefits ( in kind / cash ) of the job.  Thus when you exclude  the foreign income, you can include the housing benefit that you get ( i.e. the difference between FMV and  employer help).  This is because for US tax purposes, the wages/earnings, cash benefits, benefits in kind etc. are all viewed as taxable income.   So this way if you are able to exclude  the  earnings plus the housing help  as foreign earned income, then it reduces you tax burden ( for US purposes ).

Does this make sense ? 

pk

[xrywzy]

It does! Thanks so much for your help, both here and in the other thread 🙂