US Tax Return - reporting Irish Property Rental Income?

thenobody

Hey,

So 2010 was my first full year here (permanent resident) so figured tax return would be easier. Am going through it now with Turbo Tax.

I cannot find any info on where i have to enter the income I got from renting my apartment back in Ireland (and the heep of tax I damn well just paid).
I also want to make sure it is declared correctly so that it is just reported and I dont end up have to pay tax again on it here.

Seems like a common thing that many would have to do.

So can anyone please help me out and tell me exactly where and how I would enter this info?

Cant find any info or help on the internet and the usual "tax expert" answers of simply "declare it in your 2010 tax return" is completely useless.

Would really appreciate some good direct help.
Thanks

thenobody

In working further through Turbo Tax I entered the rental income as if the property is actually in the US.
I ignored all the stuff about mortgage interest and all property taxes etc as its all geared towards property in the US and i just used the total expenses i used for my irish tax return at the end for other expenses. Then form 1116 to claim foreign tax credit for the tax i paid in ireland.
Used a middle exchange rate.
So for the $1686 tax i paid in ireland, it is saying i can only get a tax credit for $1121 - so I am to pay over $550 tax here for the apartment in ireland that has nothing to do with the US!!!
Does that seem right?? I feel I should be able to exclude all of it and end up with it keeping ireland seperate.

Then it now seems i have to pay extra $600 in california taxes cos of this! I am getting really mad now.
So for an apartment I am loosing about 200euro a month anyway at the end of the year I am ending up paying 1250euro tax on and a further $1200 US tax on - all for nothing! That cant be right.

Again any help for what is right is much appreciated

thenobody

Very sorry to come back again on this but hopefully it benefits other people too.

I read that you can add for depreciation on the property - which you seem to not be able to claim for in Ireland (and why not I would now ask?).

So putting in for depreciation (and dedcuting 30% or mortgage interest) it came up that my apartment was actually a loss of $5811 to me in 2010.
This now has changed my federal and state taxes to about $3.6k refund and $1.3k refund resp. Thats mad!
Althought more favorable it doesnt seem right though that adding depreciation on it makes such a different.
But since they want it declared as property i have (regardless of whether in the US or now) then i guess i can deduct what i can as if it were in the US.

Any thoughts?

Boarder1

The problem with the deduction for depreciation is that the IRS will claw it back (the amount claimed) when you sell the property and charge you 25% tax on the cumulative amount claimed. In fact, even if you hadn't claimed depreciation but were entitled to they'd still claw it back!