Hello,
Ok so for the 2011 1040 there was some employed income and two part time self employments. All based in the UK.
One of the self employments made a small profit but one made a loss (start up year) so the overall figure on the 1040 for the self employment was a small loss of around $1400.
The earnings from employment were completely deducted with form 2555 as they were only about $10,000. As the self employment was a loss this did not go on form 2555 as there appeared nothing to claim a credit against. Therefore the overall figure on the 1040 was a negative figure of abour $1400.
It appears that the NOL can be carried forward against the self employed income for 2012 by putting a negative figure of $1400 in OTHER INCOME and expressing it as carried forward NOL.
Once the self employment figure is a positive one it will be deducted out in the 2555 but until then it appears that the NOL needs to carry forward.
I know this doesn't make any difference to the tax owed for US purposes, as the earnings are small. The UK system for carrying forward losses etc and balancing one loss against another are different. So the US return isn't going to mirror the UK one exactly. So the other option appears to be to forget about carrying forward the NOL and overcomplicating the US return as it isn't going to make a difference to the tax owed (no chance of reaching the FIE limit).
Thanks
