Foreign income and IRA question

Sep 01, 2007 2 Replies
G

I, perhaps misguidedly, made an IRA contribtion for the current tax year, based on the small amount of foreign earned income I will have, about $5K US or $7K AUS. Because I know know that if the foeign earned income is excluded, I will have no income for the year and thus shouldn't have made an IRA contribution, can I? Just not take the exclusion. Pay the US taxes on the $7K AU ($5K US)? How and when or who determines the currency conversion rate to determine how much I made, can contribute, et-cetera? To complicate things, My partner is a high-earner. Can she take the exclusion and I do not? Thanks in advance.



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P

Have you thought instead of taking the Foreign Income Exclusion to take instead the Foreign Tax Credit? That may solve your problem. Especially if the income is earned in a country which taxes more than the US.

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A

We are talking of earned income, so foreign tax credit must be taken on the 1116.

The 1116 limits the foreign tax credit to the amount of US tax that would have been paid on those earnings.

So if the foreign tax was applied at a higher rate than the US tax on that earned income, the tax credit is limited to what the US tax would have been.

-- ArtKamlet at a o l dot c o m Columbus OH K2PZH

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