Question

Schedule C and Form 2555 expenses and housing for Self Employment and Living outside the US.

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
May 15, 2020
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Hello, I'm just completing my 2017, 2018, and 2019 taxes. I moved to Vietnam in late 2016. In 2017, I began teaching English online to Chinese students to make a living and am continuing to do so. I work for a company who issues me a 1099 Form every year. I visited the US during 2017 for 34 days. During that time, I had a temporary job while I was in the US who issued me a W-2. I entered my 1099 income and expenses including using a portion of my apartment to teach, which this information transferred to Schedule C and Form 8829 (Expenses for Business Use of Your Home). When I entered my information into the Foreign Earned Income section, it also asks for expenses and a housing exclusion. Am I supposed to "repeat" those same business and housing expenses? (someone told me I should not put them in both places). For the time being, I entered my income and business expenses to appear on Schedule C and only put my income under the Foreign Earned Income. The calculations for 2017 Turbo Tax states I have a negative Income or Loss, and that I can carry my NOL Forward. I'm now working on 2018 (even though I'm unsure about 2017, but haven't mailed them), and I do not know where or what amount I should put as the Carryover. I have read different publications, but I'm still unsure and confused. Thanks for your help!!!

SusanY1

While most of the time you do not want to duplicate expenses, my guess as someone familiar with the salary of most English teachers in Vietnam is that your foreign housing exclusion is likely not needed on the tax return and you should keep all of your expense as home office expense on your tax return, with no need to adjust your numbers (and no need to adjust any entries that you've made into TurboTax, either.)

If your income is less than these amounts then the foreign housing exclusion is not going to figure into your tax return for the year:

$102,100 in 2017
$103,900 in 2018
$105,900 in 2019

For the loss carry forward, when using TurboTax as long as you transfer/import your data from the prior year (2017) into the current year (2018) the software will bring the loss to the appropriate place on your tax return.

If you didn't transfer the file then simply click on the search tool (magnifying glass) in the upper right of the TurboTax desktop program and search for the term "NOL carryforward" and then click on the JumpTo link that appears in the search results. This will take you to the section where you can supply your number.

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