Do you want to know everything about The Foreign tax credit? You have to file IRS form 1116 and don’t know about it? Then, don’t worry much as you have come to the perfect IRS filing expert at USTAXFiling.in. If you wish to know everything about IRS form 1116 and save your money, then continue to read the blog and get more details from us at USTAXFiling.in!
The Foreign tax credit or FTC is a money-saving credit that the Internal revenue service provides to aid the burden of double taxation. You can check out our guide to file your IRS form 1116, and you can save money in no time!
Best Takeaways:
- There are rare circumstances in which FTC or foreign tax credit is available without filing the 1116 form. This form is typically a need
- Expats may use Form 1116 to claim the FTC or foreign tax credit.
What Is IRS Form 1116?
Do you know that form 1116 is used to claim the FTC or foreign tax credit to decrease your United States liability of income tax, dollar for dollar? Before you complete your form 1116 on your income taxes, you should meet the four eligibility criteria that, include:
- The tax should be assessed on your income
- The tax should be imposed on you as a person
- You should have a liability of foreign tax that was either accrued or paid during the current financial year
- The tax should have originated legally in a foreign nation
You must know that income taxes that are due to be refunded to you should not be included in the amount of foreign taxes that are paid. Before you complete form 1116, all of the foreign taxes that are paid must be converted to United States currency. The internal revenue service prefers that every transaction must be converted at the FER or foreign exchange rate at the date of transaction.
If the exchange rate is not available readily or if the number of transactions is in excess, they might even accept the annual average of FER or foreign exchange rate. To support the US expat taxes and preparation, the internal revenue service offers an average yearly exchange rate on the site. If the taxes are assessed but are not yet been paid, you must use the exchange rate on the last day of the taxable financial year for which the taxes are assessed.
Do You Have to File an 1116 Form to Claim the FTC or Foreign Tax Credit?
If you plan to use the FTC or foreign tax credit, you have to elect this by filing the 1116 form but there are a few exceptions to this. You may use the FTC or foreign tax credit without the 1116 form if the following applies to it:
- All of your foreign taxes or gross foreign income are reported to you on a payee statement such as 1099-INT or 1099-DIV and then you elect this process for the taxable financial year.
- Your source of foreign income for the taxable year is only passive income.
- Your eligible foreign taxes for the current year are not more than $300 dollars or $600 if you are not filing a joint income tax return.
Also, it may not only imply to individuals who have a small amount of income that they might be paying foreign tax on. For example, if you have a few shares of a foreign corporation and you get some dividend amount of less than $300. The internal revenue service doesn’t need that you file the 1116 form in these scenarios, but you might even still claim the FTC or foreign tax credit on the interest income or dividend that you earned on those assets.
Form 1116 Guidelines
Step One: Find Out If You Are Eligible for the Foreign Tax Credit or FTC
There are only four stipulations that should be met before you will use the FTC or foreign tax credit:
- The income tax should be assessed on income
- You should have paid a foreign tax liability or incurred it
- The income tax return should have origin legally in a foreign nation
- The income tax should be imposed on you as a person
Step Two: Understand Your Choices
You have two options available when it comes to the FTC or foreign tax credit: you may deduct the income taxes that you have paid to your resident nation on your Federal tax return. Or, you may fill out the 1116 form and also take a credit that might decrease any amount that you owe the United States, dollar for dollar. If the amount credited is more than you have, you may carry that specific amount over and apply it towards any income taxes that you might owe in the coming decade or years.
For citizens of the United States who have stayed overseas for an extended time, carryforwards and carrybacks of credits are vital. If you become eligible for an FTC or foreign tax credit larger than your United States expat liability of income tax, then the credit might be carried back to the financial year preceding the carried forward or current for the next decade or ten years.
It means that you may use the excess credit to get a refund from the previous financial year where you did not have sufficient credits to offset your liability of United States taxes or prefer to offset your future year’s liability of taxes. Many income taxpayers might get a schedule attached to the annual United States income tax return that includes all of the FTC carryovers for eligibility.
Step Three: You Can Convert Your Income Taxes into US Dollars
The next step is where you have to convert the amount of income taxes that you paid to your resident nation into United States dollars using the exchange rate or ER from the date of the bank transaction. If the procedure is too tough, you may use the annual foreign exchange rate or FER on the IRS site.
Tip To Remember: If you accrued income taxes but have not paid them, you can use the exchange rate or ER from the last day of the applicable income tax year.
Step Four: Identify the Limits
The credit amount you claim on your United States income taxes should not exceed the amount of United States tax that you pay on foreign-earned income. To know the amount of the limitation, you can use the following formula:
Foreign-sourced taxable amount divided by total income taxable before any exemptions must be multiplied by total United States tax equals foreign-sourced United States tax. Other limits also apply. For example, there are a few taxes that cannot be claimed, such as:
- Taxes related to financial income service
- Dividends from each 10-50 percent owned foreign corporation
- Aircraft and shipping income
- Taxes paid to a government defined by the Secretary of State that supports terrorism
- Gas extraction and foreign oil income
- Dividends from foreign sales corporations
- Domestic, international sales corporation dividends
- Foreign trade income of foreign sales corporations
You must not forget that 1116 Form FTC or Foreign tax credit cannot be used on your income that has already been excluded by the FEIE or foreign earned income exclusion.
Step Five: Complete Form 1116
At the top of form 1116, there are a few important guidelines related to income categories. Form 1116 might have to be completed for every category of income. For many expats, the general category income might suffice, as it includes business and wage income. Or, if you have passive income, that necessitates 1116, an additional form, as do foreign branch income, Section 951A income, lump-sum distributions, Section 901 (j) income, and particular income resourced by treaty.
Form 1116 Example
Let us take, for instance, the case of John and Lauren Expat, natives from Montana who moved overseas to become an expert samba dancer. In 2021, John and Lauren had an income of $70,000 and paid income taxes to the Brazilian government in the amount of $20,000. They had a $4,000 tax credit carryover from 2019 and a $5000 carryover from 2020. Also, John and Lauren had $18,000 in itemized deductions, $11,000 of which were due amount to home mortgage interest.
Also, all of their income might be excluded due to the FEIE or foreign earned income exclusion, and John and Lauren will not have a United States tax liability. Also, for this case, we may assume that John and Lauren have not claimed the FEIE or foreign earned income exclusion and might only claim the FTC or foreign tax credit.
When you claim the FTC or foreign tax credit on the 1116 form, the taxpayers have to classify the income earned by the taxpayer. Also, there is a separate 1116 form that should be completed for each income category. John and Lauren only have income attributable to the GIC or General Income Category, which includes business income, salary, and basic wage. For more insights related to the other categories, you can contact one of our US expat tax professionals. The information portion of the John and Lauren 1116 Form might be completed as follows:
Form 1116: Part I
Next, John and Lauren might complete Part I. The information asks the income taxpayer to explain all of the income from resources outside the United States. Lauren and Blake only had income from Brazil country, in the amount of $65,000 dollars. John and Lauren have to report and pay income taxes on income to the United States. Also, they are eligible for a standard or itemized deductions, which they have used to offset their income. Before you calculate the FTC or foreign tax credit, these amounts have to be determined on their 1116 form. Part I may be completed as follows:
Form 1116: Part II
Form 1116 of Part II asks the income taxpayer to showcase the amount of taxes that were accrued or paid by the taxpayer in the current financial year. You must take note that this part also asks for foreign income taxes paid to be reported in the US dollar amount and foreign currency amount.
The amount of foreign taxes in Brazilian real that John and Lauren paid was 9000 R$. The Internal Revenue Service also requests that the income taxpayer also add a statement to the income tax return when you report any information, that adds a statement to the income tax return that includes the rate of foreign currency conversion.
Form 1116: Part III
Part III of the 1116 form computes the credit amount eligible that must be claimed on the income taxpayer’s United States tax return. With claiming itemized deductions of $17,129 and earned income of $65,000, John and Lauren had a United States liability of taxes of $5,039. Part III of each line is essentially calculations, and the guidelines related to every line on the form may also walk the income taxpayer through the completion.
The FTC, or foreign tax credit, for which Lauren and John are eligible and might even completely wipe out their US expat liability of taxes, and they never even had to finish the much more complex 2555 form! Also, did they have to tap into their previous year’s FTC or Foreign tax credit carryovers.
John and Lauren have paid $20,000 in total foreign income taxes during 2021. Also, as their liability of US taxes was only $7,039 after their itemized deductions and exemptions, they might only use $7,039 of the total $20,000. They are also eligible to carry $11,000 of the 2019 FTC or Foreign tax credit over into coming income tax years!
Form 1116: Part IV
The last part of the 1116 form asks the income taxpayer to know the FTC or foreign tax credits claimed on other 1116 forms for the current financial taxable year. As John and Lauren only had income from the “General” class, they might only have to include this one form, and Form 1116 of Part IV might be completed as follows:
Let USTAXFiling.in Take Care of Your 1116 Form
Although the Internal revenue service does not need any United States resident aliens and citizens to pay and report taxes on their income from around the globe, there are several methods to decrease double taxation that, include the FTC or foreign tax credit. You can see our series about how to decrease your liability taxes as a United States citizen for other examples of deductions and credits.
Although this blog provides a simple example of how to file the 1116 form for the FTC or foreign tax credit, it might be too tough for expatriates who have to file United States taxes. If you have any help with your 1116 form, or if you love to understand more about our expat tax professional services, you can connect with our tax expert assistance.
The USTAXFiling.in experts are ready to make your expat taxes simple. You don’t have to worry about filing your income taxes or Form 1116 when you have USTAXFiling.in experts for you. Our US tax professional services at USTAXFiling.in are there for you. They will ensure to discuss everything with you and guide you properly about the 1116 form. If you have any doubts or questions, then you can call USTAXFiling.in, and they will resolve your queries at the earliest. The USTAXFiling.in professionals are ready to help you anytime. Get started with us at USTAXFiling.in right away to get the best assistance!