Updated October 18, 2026. Quick answer: Lines 9 to 14 are the first half of Part III, where the form totals the foreign taxes you can use for the category of income checked at the top. Line 9 repeats line 8, line 10 adds carryovers, line 11 adds them, line 12 takes out reductions, line 13 moves high-taxed passive income, and line 14 is the total available for credit. Only lines 10, 12 and 13 have their own instruction paragraphs.
Line 9: the taxes from Part II
The form’s caption for line 9 is “Enter the amount from line 8. These are your total foreign taxes paid or accrued for the category of income checked above Part I”. Line 8 is built in Part II and is covered on the line 8 page. The instructions have no separate paragraph for line 9, so the form’s own caption is the guide: copy the line 8 total for this Form 1116 and nothing else.
Line 10 and line 11: carryovers and the sum
The caption reads “Enter the sum of any carryover of foreign taxes (from Schedule B, line 3, column (xiv)) plus any carrybacks to the current tax year.” The instructions say “Enter the unused foreign taxes in the separate category from another tax year that are eligible to be carried forward to or back to 2025.” They also give a filing rule: “Attach Schedule B (Form 1116) to your Form 1116 for each applicable separate category of income if you enter a carryover of foreign taxes from a prior tax year on Form 1116, line 10, or if you generated a foreign tax carryover in the current year.”
The instructions set the carry period this way: “You can carry back 1 year and then forward 10 years any foreign tax you paid or accrued to any foreign country or U.S. territory”. For one category the line is blank: “Leave line 10 of Form 1116 blank if you complete a Form 1116 for section 951A category income”. Line 11 is simply “Add lines 9 and 10”, and the instructions have no separate paragraph for it. For more on carryovers, the instructions send you to Pub. 514.
Line 12: reductions in foreign taxes
The caption is “Reduction in foreign taxes (see instructions)” and the amount is printed in parentheses on the form. The instructions open with “You may have to reduce the foreign taxes you paid or accrued by the following items.” Several of the listed items concern income you did not pay U.S. tax on. For income excluded on Form 2555 the instructions say “Reduce taxes paid or accrued by the taxes allocable to any foreign earned income excluded on Form 2555.” Readers who live abroad can compare this with the Form 2555 page. For Puerto Rico, “To figure the credit, reduce your foreign taxes paid or accrued by the taxes allocable to the exempt income.” For American Samoa, “reduce taxes paid or accrued by any taxes attributable to income from sources in American Samoa excluded on Form 4563.”
Two more items are tied to filing. On a missing Form 5471: “If you don’t file Form 5471 and furnish all of the information required by the due date of your tax return, reduce by 10% all foreign taxes that you may otherwise take into account for the foreign tax credit.” The Form 8865 item for partners reads the same way. For mineral income the instructions say to “Reduce taxes paid or accrued on mineral income from a foreign country or U.S. territory if you took a deduction for percentage depletion under section 613 for any part of the mineral income.” The boycott item, the foreign tax credit splitting item and the oil and gas item are also in the list. On the boycott item: “If you can figure the taxes specifically attributable to boycott operations, enter the amount on line 12.” The other boycott method goes to line 34, which the lines 33 to 35 page covers.
Line 13: taxes reclassified under the high tax kickout
The caption is “Taxes reclassified under high tax kickout (see instructions)”. The instructions say “On your Form 1116 for passive category income, enter as a negative number (in parentheses) the amount of your foreign taxes that relate to that income.” and “On your Form 1116 for the other category income, enter as a positive number the amount of foreign taxes that relate to that income.” The rule applies when “they relate to passive income that is treated as other category income because it is high taxed.”
Line 14: the total available for credit
The caption is “Combine lines 11, 12, and 13. This is the total amount of foreign taxes available for credit”. The instructions have no separate paragraph for line 14. Line 14 is the number that line 24 later compares against the limit, as the lines 20 to 24 page explains.
A computed illustration, not an IRS example: say line 9 is $3,000 and line 10 is $500 so line 11 is $3,500. If line 12 takes out $200 and line 13 is $0 then line 14 is $3,500 less $200 and that computed result is $3,300.
Where the number comes from
Line 9 comes from line 8 of the same form. Line 10 comes from Schedule B (Form 1116) and from last year’s records. Line 12 comes from the items in the instructions that apply to you, and line 13 from the high tax kickout rule. Lines 11 and 14 are arithmetic on those entries.
Where it goes next
Line 14 stays on Form 1116 and is compared with line 23 at line 24: “Enter the smaller of line 14 or line 23.” The instructions also say “If the amount on line 23 is smaller than the amount on line 14, see Pub. 514 for more information on carryback and carryforward provisions, including examples.” The limit side of the form starts on the lines 15 to 19 page.
Edition and line numbers
This page reads the 2025 Form 1116, Foreign Tax Credit (Individual, Estate, or Trust), and its 2025 instructions. They are the current files irs.gov served on 2026-10-18, the files for the tax year 2025 return filed in 2026. The form header says “Attach to Form 1040, 1040-SR, 1040-NR, 1041, or 990-T.” Check the tax year printed on the form you are filling in and use the line numbers on that year’s form, because a different year’s form can number or word its lines differently. The whole form is walked through on the Form 1116 line by line guide page.
Common mistakes
- Entering a carryover for section 951A category income. The instructions say “Leave line 10 of Form 1116 blank if you complete a Form 1116 for section 951A category income”.
- Forgetting the Form 2555 reduction. The instructions say “Reduce taxes paid or accrued by the taxes allocable to any foreign earned income excluded on Form 2555.”
- Entering the high tax kickout amount with the wrong sign. The instructions say “On your Form 1116 for passive category income, enter as a negative number (in parentheses) the amount of your foreign taxes that relate to that income.”
Related: Form 1116, Form 2555, 1099-DIV box 7 foreign tax, and Schedule 3 line 1.
Sources
- Instructions for Form 1116, Foreign Tax Credit (Individual, Estate, or Trust) (2025): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1116.pdf
- Form 1116, Foreign Tax Credit (Individual, Estate, or Trust) (2025): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1116.pdf
Read from the IRS documents linked above on October 18, 2026. General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and a preparer, the account provider or the IRS is the right place to confirm anything consequential.