U.S. citizens, resident aliens, and nonresident aliens who paid
foreign income tax and are subject to U.S. tax on foreign source
income may be able to take a foreign tax credit.
Excluded income.
You cannot take a credit for foreign income taxes you pay or accrue
on income that you exclude from gross income under the foreign earned
income or foreign housing exclusion. See Taxes on Excluded
Income, later, under Reduction in Total Foreign Taxes
Available for Credit. These exclusions are discussed in detail
in Publication 54.
U.S. Citizens
If you are a U.S. citizen, you are taxed by the United States on
your worldwide income wherever you live. You are normally entitled to
take a credit for foreign taxes you pay or accrue.
Citizen of U.S. possession.
If you are a citizen of a U.S. possession (except Puerto Rico), not
otherwise a citizen of the United States, and not a resident of the
United States, you cannot take a foreign tax credit.
Resident of American Samoa.
If you are a bona fide resident of American Samoa and exclude
income from sources in American Samoa, Guam, or the Northern Mariana
Islands, you cannot take a credit for the taxes you pay or accrue on
the excluded income. For more information on this exclusion, see
Publication 570.
Resident Aliens
If you are a resident alien of the United States, you can take a
credit for foreign taxes subject to the same general rules as U.S.
citizens. If you are a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico for the
entire tax year, you also come under the same rules.
Usually, you can take a credit only for those foreign
taxes imposed on your foreign source income. You must have actually or
constructively received the income while you had resident alien
status.
For information on alien status, see Publication 519.
Nonresident Aliens
As a nonresident alien, you can claim a credit for taxes paid or
accrued to a foreign country or possession of the United States
only on foreign source or possession source income that is
effectively connected with a trade or business in the United States.
For information on alien status and effectively connected income, see
Publication 519.
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