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April 11, 2021
Question

How do I use turbo tax to report blocked foreign income?

  • April 11, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

The situation is I have both US income and foreign income. According to IRS pub 54, I can report my foreign income as blocked foreign income or deferred foreign income. The instruction in pub 54 is clear but without more details. For the additional "information 1040", do I only include the foreign income in this 1040? How do I treat the tax paid to the other country for the foreign income part? Does the tax credit also deferred until the foreign income becoming unblocked and being added to the subsequent tax year?

In the end, how do I do this report using TurboTax?

    1 reply

    April 11, 2021

    Recommend you use TurboTax CD/Download version. 

     

    This will allow you to prepare the File version of your Federal and state returns (if applicable) and the additional Informational return for the blocked foreign income. 

     

    You have the option to include the blocked income and also the blocked tax with your current year filing or defer it via the informational return. 

     

    You do not have the option to claim a foreign tax credit if your are not including the blocked income in your income on this year's return. 

     

    The Informational return will only report the blocked income.   

     

    The Informational return is labelled "Report of Deferrable Foreign Income, pursuant to Rev. Rul. 74-351

     

    You must declare on the information return that you will include the deferrable income in your taxable income for the year that it becomes unblocked.

     

    You must also state that you waive any right to claim that the deferrable income was includible in your income for any earlier year. 

     

    You must report your income on your information return using the foreign currency in which you received that income. If you have blocked income from more than one foreign country, include a separate information return for each country.

     

    Publication 54 (2020), Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad (See Blocked Income)

     

     

    April 26, 2021

    Thanks for your answer! I have a download version of TurboTax Premier but I can't figure out how to use the software to prepare for the information return. I called TurboTax for help and they don't know how to do that either. Could you elaborate more details of how to use the software to prepare the information return?