Sorry, I'm still reading. And it's probably a moot point. Italics are excerpted from
http://www.ey.com/gl/en/services/tax/international-tax/alert--us-irs-holds-cash-basis-taxpayer-may-not-elect-accrual-method-for-claiming-foreign-tax-credits-on-amended-return The bold bits, below, have my attention. And any comments/questions from me are in brackets.
Under Section 905(a), a cash basis taxpayer may make an irrevocable election to claim foreign taxes as a credit in the year in which the taxes accrue, rather than in the year in which such taxes are paid. Once this election is made, credits for all subsequent years must be taken on the accrual basis. ...farther down...
The CCA is a reminder that cash basis taxpayers that do not make a timely election to claim foreign tax credits in the year the tax accrues are at risk for possible double taxation due to mismatching between the year foreign income taxes may be taken as a credit and the year the income subject to such taxes was taken into account for US federal income tax purposes. Because the Service does not permit cash basis taxpayers to elect to credit their foreign income taxes on an accrual basis on an amended return, cash method taxpayers should carefully consider making a timely election to credit foreign taxes on an accrual basis to avoid this potential mismatch.[Uh oh. From the above it appears I should have checked "accrued" on form 1116, and then had my wayward $500 of HMRC tax credited to my 2017 taxes.
SO, by including a form 1116 with all the 2017 foreign info worked out, with a total of "0" credit claimed for my 2017 income foreign taxes, to establish a "resource basket", and by checking "paid" rather than "accrued" and noting on the form that it was included only to determine the resource basket to be used when filing an amended return (1040x) when HMRC taxes were determined in April to prevent double-taxation, can I ~not~ send in a 1040X with a revised 1116 form?
I'm not seeing anything in any
IRS publication that says I cannot change from "paid" to "accrued", although I do see that you cannot change from "accrued" to "paid". So perhaps the quoted article, above, is incorrect?
IF you happen to know - for sure, not you kinda think you know - I'd love to hear your opinion. Seriously. Just so I know for sure what I've done.]
