Treasury Regulations · 26 CFR
§ 1.904-1. Limitation on credit for foreign income taxes.
Regulation text, no changes From the eCFR, current as of October 15, 2026. The eCFR is an authoritative but unofficial editorial compilation of the Code of Federal Regulations; the official text is the annual CFR on govinfo. Compare it with this section on ecfr.gov (external site) or the official annual CFR on govinfo (external site).
Regulation under 26 U.S.C. § 904
Cite as 26 CFR § 1.904-1
At a glance
Read from the text and its source citation. Not part of the regulation.
- Status
- In the current eCFR
- Issued
- December 17, 2019 by T.D. 9882
- Last amended
- November 12, 2020 by T.D. 9922
- Issued under
- 26 U.S.C. § 904
- Length
- 287 words · about 1 min to read
- Cross-references
- cites 2 Code sections and 3 regulations; cited by 3
¶(a) In general. For each separate category described in § 1.904-5(a)(4)(v), the total credit for foreign income taxes (as defined in § 1.901-2(a)) paid or accrued (including those deemed to have been paid or accrued other than by reason of section 904(c)) to any foreign country (as defined in § 1.901-2(g)) does not exceed that proportion of the tax against which such credit is taken which the taxpayer's taxable income from foreign sources (but not in excess of the taxpayer's entire taxable income) in such separate category bears to the taxpayer's entire taxable income for the same taxable year.
¶(b) Special computation of taxable income. For purposes of computing the limitation under paragraph (a) of this section, the taxable income in the case of an individual, estate, or trust is computed without any deduction for personal exemptions under section 151 or 642(b).
¶(c) Joint return. In the case of spouses making a joint return, the applicable limitation prescribed by section 904(a) on the credit for taxes paid or accrued to foreign countries and possessions of the United States is applied with respect to the aggregate taxable income in each separate category from sources without the United States, and the aggregate taxable income from all sources, of the spouses.
¶(d) Consolidated group. For rules relating to the computation of the foreign tax credit limitation for a consolidated group, see § 1.1502-4.
¶(e) Applicability dates. This section applies to taxable years that both begin after December 31, 2017, and end on or after December 4, 2018.
[T.D. 9882, 84 FR 69075, Dec. 17, 2019, as amended by T.D. 9922, 85 FR 72056, Nov. 12, 2020]
Cross-references
Computed from the citations in the text of 26 CFR.
Code sections it cites
Regulations it cites
- § 1.904-5 Look-through rules as applied to controlled foreign corporations and other entities.
- § 1.901-2 Income, war profits, or excess profits tax paid or accrued.
- § 1.1502-4 Consolidated foreign tax credit.
Cited by 3 other regulations
Amendment history
From the source citation at the end of the section, newest first. T.D. is a Treasury decision; FR is the Federal Register.
- Amended by T.D. 9922 (85 FR 72056)
- Issued by T.D. 9882 (84 FR 69075)
Where it sits in 26 CFR
- Subchapter A Income tax
- Part 1 Income taxes
- Foreign tax credit
Nearby sections
- § 1.902-2 Treatment of deficits in post-1986 undistributed earnings and pre-1987 accumulated profits of a first- or lower-tier corporation for purposes of computing an amount of foreign taxes deemed paid under § 1.902-1.
- § 1.902-3 Credit for domestic corporate shareholder of a foreign corporation for foreign income taxes paid with respect to accumulated profits of taxable years of the foreign corporation beginning before January 1, 1987.
- § 1.902-4 Rules for distributions attributable to accumulated profits for taxable years in which a first-tier corporation was a less developed country corporation.
- § 1.903-1 Taxes in lieu of income taxes.
- § 1.904-1 Limitation on credit for foreign income taxes.
- § 1.904-2 Carryback and carryover of unused foreign tax.
- § 1.904-3 Carryback and carryover of unused foreign tax by spouses making a joint return.
- § 1.904-4 Separate application of section 904 with respect to certain categories of income.
- § 1.904-5 Look-through rules as applied to controlled foreign corporations and other entities.