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September 29, 2019
Question

Unearned foreign income

  • September 29, 2019
  • 1 reply
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Where do I enter foreign UNEARNED income??? I have some rental income, which was easy to enter under "rental income". But I'm also part of an old family property and have income from a timber sale, and can't figure out where I can enter it. Not under "foreign income" since it's not a salary or a wage. Not under misc income either, because then it's not apparent that it's from a foreign country, where I already paid taxes for it.

    1 reply

    October 8, 2019

    There are three basic ways in which income can be realized from the ownership of timber property:

    1. You may receive ordinary income from rent for use of the property itself or from other services that the property produces such as hunting leases or payments from other recreational activities.
    2. You may receive ordinary income from the sale of logs, lumber, or other products you produce from the timber itself. You may also have ordinary income from the sale of non-timber forest products such as medicinal plants, moss, and ferns.
    3. You may receive income from the disposal of standing timber (stumpage), or by cutting the timber and electing to "treat the cutting as a sale".
    In the case of items 1 and 2 above the income is treated as ordinary income 1040 line 21 the fact that it is "foreign" makes no difference

    In the case of item 3 above the income may qualify for capital gains treatment     this is provided for under IRC 631

     

    use this link to determine if it qualifies for capital gain.  again the fact this is foreign makes no difference.

    https://www.timbertax.org/getstarted/sales/capitalgains/determination/capgain2bInvestment/