Foreign tax credit carryback -- how do I enter this in TurboTax? (It only asks about carryovers)

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
February 27, 2020
1 reply
0 views

For 2018, I filled out form 1116 and the worksheet limit for my foreign tax credit was well below the credit I could claim. For 2019, I filled out form 1116 and had a few hundred dollars in foreign tax credit that I couldn't use because it was over the calculated worksheet limit. I've read I can amend my 2018 return to do a carryback to 2018 (and I'll still be under my 2018 worksheet limit).

Can this be done in TurboTax online by amending my 2018 return? If so, how do I enter it?

While amending my 2018 return in TurboTax Online, I only saw a place to enter carryovers from 2017 and earlier (not a carryback from 2019) when I went through the foreign tax credit section of TurboTax.

TurboTax Premier Online

Best answer by linaj20201

No, you cannot amend your 2018 tax return by using the TurboTax online edition. It has to be done on the desktop. You can amend the 2019 taxes online, but not the past years' taxes.

If you have filed with TurboTax, to amend 2018 tax return, see instructions here: Amend

To see further details on how to amend, select the "Learn More" feature on the "Excess Foreign Tax Credit" screen. Here are the steps:

In TurboTax online,

Open up your TurboTax account and select Pick up where you left off
At the right upper corner, in the search box, type in "foreign tax credit" and Enter
Select Jump to foreign tax credit
Follow prompts
On-screen Excess Foreign Tax Credit, select Learn More.
See the images below

linaj20201Answer

No, you cannot amend your 2018 tax return by using the TurboTax online edition. It has to be done on the desktop. You can amend the 2019 taxes online, but not the past years' taxes.

If you have filed with TurboTax, to amend 2018 tax return, see instructions here: Amend

To see further details on how to amend, select the "Learn More" feature on the "Excess Foreign Tax Credit" screen. Here are the steps:

In TurboTax online,

Open up your TurboTax account and select Pick up where you left off
At the right upper corner, in the search box, type in "foreign tax credit" and Enter
Select Jump to foreign tax credit
Follow prompts
On-screen Excess Foreign Tax Credit, select Learn More.
See the images below

notsurewhattoputhereAuthor

I should have clarified that I used TurboTax online for my 2018 return as well. I think the "Amending a Prior Year Return for a Carryback" section is what I was looking for. Side note: the link within that article is broken 😕😕

Thanks!

notsurewhattoputhereAuthor

I should also note that those instructions don't actually work since it doesn't appear to be possible to add a country named "Carryback" in the foreign tax credit interview. I saw another answer on here suggesting using whiteout, but I think at this point, I'm just going to amend my return myself and not bother with TurboTax since it doesn't appear to actually support this scenario.