carryback FTC to 2012 by amending election not to use 1116?

Hope somebody was in such situation before.

In 2112 I claimed a tiny amount of FTC ($15) for passive income, without filing 1116.
I also had foreign wages, but they were not taxed abroad, so I did nothing there.
In 2013 I have excess FTC from working in UK and want to carryback to use against my 2012 foreign wages.

However, instructions for form 116 say (page 17):
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/i1116--2013.pdf

If, for any year, you elected to claim the foreign tax credit without filing Form 1116 (as explained earlier), the following rules apply.
You cannot carry over unused foreign taxes paid or accrued in a year to which the election does not apply to or from any year for which you made the election.
The carryback-carryforward period is not extended if you are unable to use a carryback or carryforward because you made the election.
Do not reduce the carryback or carryforward by the amount you would have used in the election year if you had not made the election.

I called IRS, but the guy had no knowledge of the issue, he just read instructions with me for the 1st time.
He said that, while there seems to be no explicitly spelled option to "revoke" election not to use 1116, it is not explicitly forbidden to "amend" this election.
He hence suggested I should do 2 amendments.
First, to reevaluate my £15 actually using form 1116 (not just forfeiting FTC).
Second, to claim carryback.
He also said I better send them separately , so that 2-nd arrives after 1-st "registers"

Seems to be too much paperwork, and I am even not sure this one would work.
Any advise?

I actually realize now I cannot realistically file form 1116 for that $15, as I do not have enough information (it was a tax on dividend from mutual fund, I even do not know the country). I probably could do 1st amendment by just stating that I change my position to one where I do not claim any FTC..

I was in your exact situation, originally filed my 2009 return using the election, then successfully amended it later to add to add Form 1116 so that I could carry back excess FTC from 2010. You will want to send your 2013 return first (e-file if possible) and then file the amended 2012 return later (comprising Forms 1040X, 1040, and 1116). On the 1040X form, where it asks what changes you have made, just say something like "Added Form 1116 in order to carry back excess foreign tax credit." It should be pretty straightforward.

Thank you!
May I ask: did you subtract the FTC amount, which you claimed initially on 2009 without filing 1116, from the carryback amount? (On line 7 of 1040X)
Or did you just ignore it?
I try to understand whether your amendment went through because it was correctly done, or because they did not knew their own rules and did not notice the issue, as you did not attract their attention to it (IRS guy I talked to was not aware of them).

I'm not sure I understand your question - but in a nutshell, you recalculate the FTC using Form 1116 (and including carryback), and then put the old and new FTC amounts on the Form 1040X.

Thank you so much, this answers my question.

I was plannnig to do exactly what you did, but then I read p.17 of instructions for 1116, and started worrying. Probably I am overdoing it and making things unnecessarily complicated.
Instructions say one cannot carryback FTC to the year during which one elected to claim FTC without filing 1116.
But we can say that simply by filing an amendment to return with form 1116 one reverses the choice "to claim FTC without filing 1116", so there is no issue.

Note though, that IRS people have no clue about this issue. First one I called was as puzzled as me. I now called 2-nd time and was told to file all in one amendment since "anyway this is the best you could do", and then - that if I am denied I can appeal, and at that moment more competent people would deal with my case

But we can say that simply by filing an amendment to return with form 1116 one reverses the choice "to claim FTC without filing 1116", so there is no issue.

Yes.