# US citizens - tax filing question



## anselmino (Mar 26, 2013)

Trying to file my US taxes using Turbotax. When I come to the foreign earned income section, do I enter the USD equivalent of my GDP pay using the total gross pay or the taxable pay? For me it's quite a difference, resulting in having to pay US federal tax in the first case, but not in the latter case. I live in the UK.


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## santafe (Sep 10, 2012)

Why is there a difference between your taxable and gross? Is it due to employee pension contributions?


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## anselmino (Mar 26, 2013)

santafe said:


> Why is there a difference between your taxable and gross? Is it due to employee pension contributions?


Yes employee pension contribution and employee national insurance contribution.


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## santafe (Sep 10, 2012)

As far as I know your employee NI contributions are not deductible from gross pay for your usa taxes.
Your pension contributions maybe deductible from gross pay depending on your pension scheme, your income and residency check the us/uk tax treaty. 

I am no expert there are a lot of posts on this subject on the UK-Yankee forum (US-UK taxes).


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## santafe (Sep 10, 2012)

Another question are you filling a 2555 foreign earned income exclusion and/or the 1116 foreign tax credit. You can try both ways and see which gives you the better result. When i used Turbotax it directed to me to the 2555 but I prefer the 1116 to get the carryover of foreign tax credits and additional child tax credits but with the 1116 I became subject to AMT (alternative minimum tax). I then had to fill in the 1116 for AMT and not take the standard deduction which reduced the AMT to zero.


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## anselmino (Mar 26, 2013)

Thanks a lot for your replies!


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

As has already been said, for US tax purposes, you must declare your GROSS salary (in US$) before any deductions. The other "trick" is that you should NOT use the UK taxable income for the UK tax year (April 6 to April 5), but rather your actual gross earnings for the calendar year. 

The difference in tax years is a headache for everyone filing from the UK, but it's not all that difficult if your salary didn't change during the prior calendar year (i.e. just 12 x your monthly rate). 
Cheers,
Bev


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