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…” on his From 1116 (Foreign Tax Credit) he listed the countries from which he derived income as “various” instead of actually listing the countries. (If you or I had done that, we would be getting a letter from the IRS wanting an explanation.)

Sorry, I do that all the time without IRS complaint.

It's a typical entry if you have foreign income from stock dividends, especially if you have several stocks in one account. For example, if I had a few shares of British American Tobacco and Nestles at a brokers, my tax return would just add up the dividends (and the taxes with-held, which is what a From 1116 is about), and list them as "various." Full documentation of what composes the "various" is already at the IRS in the form of a 1099 from the broker.