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   20/05/2008, 9:17
cooperlola is not online. Last active: 09/11/2008 17:04:05 cooperlola



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Re: Exchange rate for Tax purposes
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As Sunday Driver has said above in several different ways - there is no official yearly rate.  The legal rate to use is the rate which was applicable at the time you were paid the money.

The critical thing is to be able to prove that the rate you used is at least as close as you were able to get to the one the law specifies.  Thus, yes, you will probably get away with a rate supplied by your local tax office for the year, but I would suggest that you get this in writing (or at least as an e-mail) direct from your own tax office and keep it with your documents in case of a tax audit in the future. Because I'm sure that "the rate I read about on an expat forum" would not be a good enough explanation if the auditors come to call.

And personally, if I had been lucky enough to have received a large sum of money at one time (such as an investment payout, inheritance etc) I would take the trouble to find out the rate on the day that was paid, rather than using an average rate for the year.  Then you cannot be wrong in the eyes of the law.


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   20/05/2008, 9:38
Benjamin is not online. Last active: 09/10/2008 07:05:12 Benjamin

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Re: Exchange rate for Tax purposes
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 cooperlola wrote:


And personally, if I had been lucky enough to have received a large sum of money at one time (such as an investment payout, inheritance etc) I would take the trouble to find out the rate on the day that was paid, rather than using an average rate for the year.  Then you cannot be wrong in the eyes of the law.




The proviso here has to be that you use one method or the other, you can't be seen deciding to use the end of year unofficial "official" rate for most of your transactions and then use a one off rate for a particular transaction.

I said, rather tongue in cheek, in an earlier posting on this thread, that it will be interesting to see how many people who are advocating using 1€36 to cover all of their 2007 transactions will want to be using the average rate obtained for 2008 when they see that it is to their benefit to do so.

We converted our UK income at 1€45 for 2007 because that was the average rate we received  throughout 2007.




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   27/05/2008, 17:13
ErnieY is not online. Last active: 01/12/2008 17:54:48 ErnieY



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Re: Exchange rate for Tax purposes
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Been into Cahors today with my forms; asked what the exchange rate should be and was told the 'official' rate was 1.3425 Confused [8-)]

 

 


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   27/05/2008, 17:15
woolybanana'sbrother is not online. Last active: 20/07/2008 20:58:25 woolybanana'sbrother

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Re: Exchange rate for Tax purposes
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Yesterday was told that there definitely is an official end of year rate fixed by Paris.
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   27/05/2008, 17:26
allanb is not online. Last active: 23/10/2008 11:32:46 allanb

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Re: Exchange rate for Tax purposes
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Instead of saying that there is no official rate, perhaps I should have said that there's an infinite number of official rates.  Maybe we could have a contest to find the lowest one, and then we can all move there.



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   27/05/2008, 17:32
suein56 is not online. Last active: 01/12/2008 15:11:50 suein56

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Re: Exchange rate for Tax purposes
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 ErnieY wrote:

Been into Cahors today with my forms; asked what the exchange rate should be and was told the 'official' rate was 1.3425 Confused [8-)]

I emailed my local tax office in Vannes, which is quite a large office and definitely used to dealing with foreigners albeit in French, and was told that there is no official rate - as per SD's posts - but that I could, for convenience, use an average rate of 1.4264. This was arrived at by adding together the end of year rate of 1.3636 at 31 December 2007 and the start of year rate of 1.4892 as at 1 January 2007 and dividing by two. I was advised also to quote the email, the reference number and the name of the Inspector of Taxes who relayed this info to me on the Declaration of Taxes I shall make.

Sue


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   27/05/2008, 17:40
cooperlola is not online. Last active: 09/11/2008 17:04:05 cooperlola



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Re: Exchange rate for Tax purposes
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If nothing else, this all goes to prove that simply assuming that the lowest rate is acceptable to your own tax office just isn't the way to go about this.  Ask and then keep the evidence (if you get a straight answer).

What is becoming obvious to me is that the rate I worked out for myself (based upon what I actually got) is higher than most of those quoted by the various tax offices.  Maybe my luck will be better next year!


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   27/05/2008, 17:48
ErnieY is not online. Last active: 01/12/2008 17:54:48 ErnieY



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Re: Exchange rate for Tax purposes
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We did actually ask if the rate was published on the impots web site and were told "yes, but late" whatever that was supposed to mean Confused [8-)]


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   27/05/2008, 18:02
Catalpa is not online. Last active: 18/09/2008 06:01:11 Catalpa

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Re: Exchange rate for Tax purposes
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 Catalpa wrote:
Our tax office in southern Normandie told me to use 1.3636 across the board for the year. My figures then go to our accountant (French, registered, etc etc) including all the backup paperwork including spreadsheet - and for the past three years he's agreed my use of one figure (given to me by the tax office each spring) for the year.

I don't mind what I do - it's not much extra hassle to enter the different exchange rates but if I can keep it simple, I will. And do.


I'd forgotten I'd contributed to this thread till it was resurrected today.

As I said several weeks ago, our tax office told me to use 1.3636. However, having submitted my figures to our accountant based on that rate - and telling him that I'd used that figure - he requested I recalculate them using: 1.456. Which I did. So the tax office may say one thing... but this year our accountant thought differently. Wink [;-)]

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