Foreign Tax Credit

Income tax systems that tax residents on worldwide income generally offer a foreign tax credit to mitigate the potential for double taxation. The credit may also be granted in those systems taxing residents on income that may have been taxed in another jurisdiction. The credit generally applies only to taxes of a nature similar to the tax being reduced by the credit (i.e., taxes based on income). This credit is often limited to the amount of tax attributable to foreign source income. This limitation may be computed by country, class of income, overall, and/or another manner. Most income tax systems therefore contain rules defining source of income (domestic, foreign, or by country) and timing of recognition of income, deductions, and taxes, as well as rules for associating deductions with income. For systems that separately tax business entities and their members, a deemed paid credit may be offered to entities receiving income (such as dividends) from other entities, with respect to taxes paid by the payor entities with respect to the income underlying the income recognized by the member. Systems with controlled foreign corporation rules may provide deemed paid credits with respect to deemed income inclusions under such rules. Some variations on the credit provide for a credit for hypothetical tax to encourage foreign investment (sometimes known as tax sparing).

Detailed rules vary among taxation systems. Examples below are given for illustration purposes only and may not reflect the rules in a particular tax system.