LB&I Process Unit - IRS

LB&I Process Unit

Unit Name

Qualified Dividends and Capital Gains Rate Differential Adjustments

Primary UIL Code 9432.02-03 Capital Gains/Qualified Dividend Rate Differential Adjustment

Library Level Knowledge Base Shelf Book Chapter

Title International Individual Outbound Foreign Tax Credit Individual Calculation of Amount of Allowable FTC

Document Control Number (DCN) INT-P-217

Date of Last Update

12/14/20

Note: This document is not an official pronouncement of law, and cannot be used, cited or relied upon as such. Further, this document may not contain a comprehensive discussion of all pertinent issues or law or the IRS's interpretation of current law.

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Table of Contents

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Process Overview Detailed Explanation of the Process Summary of Process Steps Step 1 ? Determine if Taxpayer is Subject to Preferential Tax Rate Under IRC 1(h) Step 2 ? Check If Taxpayer Made an Election on Form 4952 Step 3 ? Determine If U.S. Capital Loss Adjustment is Needed Step 4 ? Make Capital Gain Rate Differential Adjustment of Long-Term Capital Gain/Loss Exceptions Definitions Other Considerations / Impact to Audit

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Table of Contents (cont'd)

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Index of Referenced Resources Training and Additional Resources Glossary of Terms and Acronyms Index of Related Practice Units

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Process Overview

Qualified Dividends and Capital Gains Rate Differential Adjustments

The United States (U.S.) taxes its individual residents and citizens on their worldwide income. To prevent double taxation, U.S. taxpayers are allowed a credit for foreign income taxes "paid or accrued" on income that is taxed by both the U.S. and a foreign country. This credit is known as the Foreign Tax Credit (FTC). The FTC, however, has limitations. Under IRC 904, the amount of FTC a taxpayer is allowed in a taxable year is subject to an overall limitation based on the proportion of taxpayer's foreign source taxable income to the taxpayer's worldwide taxable income. The purpose of the overall limitation is to ensure that the FTC reduces a taxpayer's U.S. tax on foreign income but does not reduce the U.S. tax on U.S. income. The overall limitation is expressed as follows:

Further limitations in computing the FTC, such as the rate differential adjustment (which reduces the foreign source qualified dividends and capital gains in the numerator and the denominator of the fractional limitation above), are required. In this Practice Unit, we will examine the steps necessary to compute the rate differential adjustment for U.S. individual taxpayers.

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Detailed Explanation of the Process

Qualified Dividends and Capital Gains Rate Differential Adjustments

Analysis

Due to the preferential tax treatment of capital gains and qualified dividends under U.S. tax law, an adjustment is required to reduce the amount of foreign source capital gains and qualified dividends by a rate differential when computing the FTC. See IRC 904(b)(2) and Treas. Reg. 1.904(b)-1. The effect of this adjustment is to only include a portion of capital gains in the IRC 904 fractional limitation since the U.S. tax rate that applies to capital gains is less than the rate that applies to ordinary income. Or stated another way, because taxing capital gains at a low rate is the same as taxing just part of the gains at the full rate, only the part that is theoretically taxed at the full rate should enter the IRC 904 limitation calculation. Under IRC 904(b)(2), a gain from the sale or exchange of capital assets is included in foreign source taxable income only to the extent of foreign source capital gain net income. Because qualified dividend income also receives the preferential tax treatment, the rate differential adjustment is required for qualified dividend income as well. See IRC 1(h)(11) for a definition of qualified dividend income.

For a taxpayer other than a corporation (including individuals and trusts), a capital gain rate differential exists for a taxable year when IRC 1(h) applies for that year. See IRC 904(b)(3)(D); Treas. Reg. 1.904(b)-1(b). IRC Section 1(h) provides the preferential rates for the net capital gains of taxpayers other than corporations.

If a rate differential exists, the rules of IRC 904(b)(2)(B) require three adjustments to the IRC 904(a) fractional limitation (two apply to the numerator and one applies to the denominator):

IRC 904(b)(2)(B)(i) limits the portion of capital gains that enter the numerator (foreign-source taxable income) to the taxpayer's foreign source capital gain net income reduced by the rate differential portion of the foreign-source net capital gain. The effect of this adjustment is to allow capital gains to enter the numerator only to the extent that the gains are effectively subject to U.S. tax at full rates.

IRC 904(b)(2)(B)(ii) limits the portion of capital gains that enter the denominator (worldwide taxable income) to the taxpayer's worldwide capital gain net income reduced by the rate differential portion of net capital gain. This parallels the reduction that occurs in the numerator under IRC 904(b)(2)(B)(i) and therefore has the effect of allowing capital gains to enter the denominator only to the extent the gains are effectively subject to U.S. tax at full rates.

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