J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2013: For Preparing Your 2012 Tax Return

36.2 What Is Foreign Earned Income?

For exclusion purposes, foreign earned income includes salaries, wages, commissions, professional fees, and bonuses for personal services performed while your tax home is in a foreign country and you meet either the foreign residence test or the physical presence test; see 36.3. Earned income also includes allowances from your employer for housing or other expenses, as well as the value of housing or a car provided by the employer. It may also include business profits, royalties, and rents, provided this income is tied to the performance of services. Earned income does not include pension or annuity income, payments for nonqualified employee trusts or nonqualified annuities, dividends, interest, capital gains, gambling winnings, alimony, or the value of tax-free meals or lodging under the rules in 3.12.

Foreign earned income does not include amounts earned in countries subject to U.S. government travel restrictions.

Courts have agreed with the IRS that income earned in Antarctica, in international waters, and in international airspace is not earned in a foreign country and thus cannot qualify for the exclusion.

U.S. government pay ineligible.

If you are an employee of the U.S. government or its agencies, you may not exclude any part of your pay from your government employer. Courts have agreed with the IRS that U.S. government workers were U.S. employees even though they were paid from sources other than Congressionally appropriated funds. If ...