Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet (2025), Form 1040 Line 16

What is the Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet?

The Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet is a one-page worksheet in the 2025 Instructions for Form 1040 (page 37), in the instructions for line 16 (Tax). It is marked "Keep for Your Records". It does not figure how much income you can exclude: you claim the exclusion on Form 2555. The worksheet figures the tax that goes on Form 1040 or 1040-SR, line 16, after the exclusion. The blank on this page is that 2025 worksheet.

Who must use it

If you claimed the foreign earned income exclusion, housing exclusion, or housing deduction on Form 2555, you must figure your tax using the Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet. If Form 1040 or 1040-SR, line 15, is zero, don't complete this worksheet.

How the worksheet works

1. Line 1: the amount from Form 1040 or 1040-SR, line 15.
2. Line 2a: the amount from your (and your spouse's, if filing jointly) Form 2555, lines 45 and 50. Line 2b: any itemized deductions or exclusions you couldn't claim because they are related to excluded income. Line 2c: line 2a minus line 2b (if zero or less, enter -0-).
3. Line 3: lines 1 and 2c added together. Line 4: the tax on line 3, using the Tax Table, Tax Computation Worksheet, Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet, Schedule D Tax Worksheet, or Form 8615, whichever applies. Don't use a second Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet for this line.
4. Line 5: the tax on line 2c, using the Tax Table if line 2c is less than $100,000, or the Tax Computation Worksheet if it is $100,000 or more.
5. Line 6: line 4 minus line 5 (if zero or less, enter -0-). Also include this amount on the entry space on Form 1040 or 1040-SR, line 16.

If you have capital gains

If you use the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet or the Schedule D Tax Worksheet for line 4, enter the amount from line 3 on line 1 of that worksheet and complete it through line 4 (line 10 for the Schedule D Tax Worksheet). Then subtract Form 1040 or 1040-SR, line 15, from that line: a result above zero is your capital gain excess. If you don't have a capital gain excess, complete the rest of that worksheet according to its instructions, then complete lines 5 and 6 of the Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet. If you have a capital gain excess, you complete a second Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet or Schedule D Tax Worksheet with the modifications listed in the footnote of the Foreign Earned Income Tax Worksheet, and only for purposes of this worksheet.