SLARRY[at]weizmann.weizmann.ac.il (Larry Israel) wrote:

- quote -

It is doubtful you could get any benefit from such costs.
To begin with, you cannot include any costs of owning the
home. So, mortgage interest, property tax, and depreciation
are not allowed.

Second, there are both floors and ceilings on the
exclusion/deduction. The ancillary type expenses you are
talking about are unlikely to exceed the floor.

Probably not worth the effort to even try.

Lanny K. Williams, CPA
Nawarat, Williams & Co., Ltd.
Income Tax Services for Expatriate Americans

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Larry Israel wrote:

- quote -

See page 20 of IRS Pub 54. It has an exhaustive list of what
expenses qualify for the housing exclusion. Utilities are
listed. Utilities do not include telephone or paid
television subscriptions. Page 20 also explains how one
computes the housing amount. You have to subtract the base
amount from the qualified housing. In your case, the base
amount is $36.12 times the number of qualified days. For a
whole year, the base amount is $13,184.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf

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- quote -

The answer appears to be yes according to the information in
IRS Publication 54, starting on page 20. Column III lists
includible and non-includible housing expenses.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf

Frederick Lorca

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This is only theoretical, as I don't even reach the maximum
earned income exclusion. I am a permanent overseas resident,
owning my own home.

If I had enough foreign income to go over $82,400, could I
claim some of my housing costs such as utilities as a
foreign housing exclusion?

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