If you paid or accrued foreign taxes to a foreign country on foreign source income and are subject to U.S. tax on the same income, you may be able to take either a credit or an itemized deduction for those taxes. Taken as a deduction, foreign income taxes reduce your U.S. taxable income. Taken as a credit, foreign income taxes reduce your U.S. tax liability.

In most cases, it is to your advantage to take foreign income taxes as a tax credit. The major scope of this publication is the foreign tax credit.

The publication discusses:

• How to choose to take the credit or the deduction,
• Who can take the credit,
• What foreign taxes qualify for the credit,
• How to figure the credit, and
• How to carry over unused foreign taxes to other tax years.

Unless you choose not to be subject to the foreign tax credit limit, you claim the credit by filing Form 1116 with your U.S. income tax return. Two examples with filled-in Forms 1116 are provided at the end of this publication.

Comments and suggestions. We welcome your comments about this publication and your suggestions for future editions.

You can e-mail us while visiting our web site at www.irs.gov.

You can write to us at the following address:

Internal Revenue Service
Technical Publications Branch
W:CAR:MP:FP:P
1111 Constitution Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20224

We respond to many letters by telephone. Therefore, it would be helpful if you would include your daytime phone number, including the area code, in your correspondence.

First | Next

Publication Index | 2001 Tax Help Archives | Tax Help Archives | Home