How can one elect to claim Foreign Tax Credit (Form 1116) on TurboTax?

External question — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: Franck Dernoncourt Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/169480 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. I’m filing US taxes in TurboTax and imported my 1099 form from my broker, which includes taxes paid to non-US countries. TurboTax gave me that error: Foreign tax Sch A box or Form 1116 copy should be entered. Return to the place where this was entered to correct the entry. TurboTax gives me the choice between (option A) and claim Foreign Tax Credit (Form 1116) (option B): a. Check to deduct foreign taxes on Schedule A b. DoubleClick to link to a copy of Form 1116 However, for option B, which I want to choose since linking to a copy of Form 1116 presumably means claiming Foreign Tax Credit (TurboTax could certainly be clearer on that), double-clicking that does not work. Double-clicking does nothing. How can one elect to claim Foreign Tax Credit (Form 1116) on TurboTax?

External answer — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: MTA Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/a/169481 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. I think you're using the TurboTax online version. I used the desktop version, and it did the foreign tax credit with no drama. I'll tell you what I know, as it may help. The reason they ask you to deal with it either through Schedule A or form 1116 is that these are mutually exclusive. Schedule A is for itemized deductions, so you would take a deduction for foreign taxes paid only if you are itemizing deductions and not taking the standard deduction. Form 1116 has you deal with it as a tax credit instead of a deduction. There are limits and conditions so it asks a series of questions and computes the credit, but then it's required to look at your past 10 years of foreign tax credits and see if you have a carryover that can be added to this year's credit without exceeding certain limits. This was my first year using TurboTax, so I had to get last year's 1116 and enter 10 years of history myself. (There may have been an option to upload a PDF of my last 1116 but I chose manual entry. The final 1116 that TurboTax produced for the return was a 2-page 1116 plus a 2-page Schedule B (Form 1116) . This is a different document from Schedule B (Form 1040) . It contains 10 years of foreign tax credit history printed in landscape. I think the online version is looking for a previous year's Form 1116 with its Schedule B, which may be what the double-click instructions are about. If you have no online history of previous returns, see if they provide a way to upload previous returns or individual forms. If they do, you may find that the dead link that does nothing now takes you to last year's 1116 for further attention.

External answer — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: Franck Dernoncourt Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/a/169482 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. One can add Form 1116 on TurboTax via Deductions -> Estimated and Other Taxes Paid : Later, adding Form 1116 will trigger this question: Foreign Tax Credit (Form 1116) computation: “Qualified Dividends and Long-Term Capital Gains Adjustment” worksheet. To get this number, one has to look at all one's 1099 Forms and do the sum of the qualified foreign dividends and long-term capital gains. E.g., In Fidelity, it is in the Consolidated Form 1099, section "Document: Fidelity – 2025 Supplemental Information"", under "Foreign Income and Taxes Summary" In Merrill Edge, it is in the "2025 tax reporting statement", then one has to compute the sum of qualified foreign dividends and long-term capital gains oneself (thanks Merrill Edge!). In Charles Schwab, it is the "Tax year 2025 - Form 1099 composite & year-end summary" then one has to compute the sum of qualified foreign dividends and long-term capital gains oneself (thanks Charles Schwab!). etc. It is very concerning that TurboTax doesn't guide users more efficiently toward that typically optimal option.