Hi,

My husband works for a university in the U.S. Last summer he and his coworkers organized a seminar at a university in Spain, for which my husband was paid by both his regular employer and a company in Spain. We are wondering, how do we report this foreign income on our taxes? I've been told I "report it the same as domestic income" which doesn't help a lot since we don't have a W2 or any other tax documents, in fact, for the foreign income. The only record we have of it is the direct deposit made into our bank account.

The options I can see are:
1) report it on line 7, attaching some sort of note explaining where it came from
2) report it on line 21 as other income
3) report it as self-employment income, for which I'd need to fill out schedule C.

Someone told me they thought it should be reported as self-employment income, but this doesn't quite make sense to me. The work my husband did for the company in Spain was done as part of his regular duties for the university he works for in the U.S. Also, if I did use schedule C, would the "business name" be the Spanish company that paid my husband? Or would we leave it blank because technically my husband is the "company" in question, which just happened to receive income from the business in Spain?

Thanks!

“We are wondering, how do we report this foreign income on our taxes?”---->I guess the first option is the most idealistic; 1) report it on line 7, attaching some sort of note explaining where it came from.; Without W2( as the foreign country doesn’t report the academic seminar income on a Form W-2), he can still report the income from academic seminar on 1040 line 7. The seminar is directly RELATED to his EMPLOYMENT as a professor of a university. Without the employment, he didn’t have to go to Spain and no income to report. Your husband is , needless to say, an EMPLOYEE of the university, not self-employed or an IC. filing Sch C or SE.
“The work my husband did for the company in Spain was done as part of his regular duties for the university he works for in the U.S.”----> Totally agreed; the academic seminar was performed by your husband under the employment situation as an EE of the university. I also guess you MAY contact the IRS though not all of the IRS agents are very helpful.