foreign stock (ADR), dividends and "foreign source amount"

If the dividend is from a foreign corporation, you can usually assume that the foreign source income is 100$ of the income. You should be able to get that information from the company.

In any event, this is a situation where knowing the law trumps following the interview process in tax software. TT probably doesn't need the information, but there is no way for the software to know until after all the data is input. The foreign source income is only needed if you actually use Form 1116 to calculate your foreign tax credit. If your total foreign tax paid is less that $300/$600 (based on filing status) and your only sources of foreign income are from interest and dividends and you meet certain other requirements, you can claim the foreign tax credit directly on line 48 of Form 1040. See the instructions for that line for more detail.

Ira Smilovitz, EA

Did you mean 100%, rather than 100$?

The foreign tax paid was $25, and it looks like Turbotax has put it on line 48 as you mention. Despite that, however, when doing "final checks" it asked for a $ amount of foreign sourced portion of the dividends.

Yes, 100%. Sorry for the typo.

Ira Smilovitz, EA

the foreign source income is 100$ of the income. You should be able to get that information from the company.

the interview process in tax software. TT probably doesn't need the information, but there is no way for the software to know until after all the data is input. The foreign source income is only needed if you actually use Form 1116 to calculate your foreign tax credit. If your total foreign tax paid is less that $300/$600 (based on filing status) and your only sources of foreign income are from interest and dividends and you meet certain other requirements, you can claim the foreign tax credit directly on line 48 of Form

The only time that I needed to know the dividend amount was when I had to check for AMT (IIRC).

/BAH