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Exchange rate for tax purposes


menthe
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Bonjour to everyone on here. 

May I be the first person this year to ask what exchange rate we are using for our tax declarations this year?  Has anyone had an answer from an "official bod"?

I no longer have a local tax office and the allocated one is now half a département away and phone calls do not tend to be "bien simple"?

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Mint, as I don;t trasnfer monies across, I  keep an record of the daily exhange rate and  looked at the BoF average for the year .. and I averaged it out .. which was 1.16, not the 1.146 (I think) which is being quoted.  As I did it 2 weeks ago, I cannot now rememebr teh actual rate, but it was that ballpark figure.  Quite honestly as long as you are in the ballpark they are not going to worry too much.  If my figures are somewhat similar to last year, maybe with a small increase or not, depending on the rate, I don't worry.  Bonne chance.

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I used to do that too, Kong.  Looked up all the historic rates and it became a real pain.  One reason for it being so tedious is because my husband receives money from 3 different sources on 3 different days in a month and I get my state pension and local authority pension on 2 different days which are also different from HIS 3 days!

Last year was the first year that I used one single rate as proposed on here and this year I intend to do the same.  I have quite a major op coming up in May and a walking holiday around the middle of June if I am up to it.

Would just like to get the declarations out of the way so that I am not distracted from what I need to do to ensure a good recovery.

BTW, I am glad you are on here, Kong.  You will remember about those bonds (the bribery ones from the Tories at the time of the 2017 election) because we both bought some?  To cut a long story short, I have left my money there through, I don't know, idlenness....But you might now like to look up the NS&I's Green Bonds.

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Oops sorry Judith, was replying to Kong when you posted.  I also don't transfer money monthly, not even yearly.  Tend to transfer a lump sum at intervals of maybe a couple of years.

But, like Kong, I used to do that actual day thing.....such a bother and a pother, me with my near zero numeracy..yuck!

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Hi Mint, n'importe!  The only thing I get over here is the state pension which comes converted directly, hubby's come already converted to, so it is only my UK income, which never comes across (I use my UK credit card on and off, so it pays for that without bringing it over,) and that I convert the UK income en masse once I've added up the totals, and done the necessary for the calculations.

Like you I'm hoping to be off to the UK in May, so wanted to get the tax forms over and done with soonest.  Good luck on the op .. I had another PET scan yesterday, hoping that it will tell me what we are all hoping it will next week!

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Technically, the rate to use is that applicable on the day of receipt (not transfer) of any GBP. I have done this on a spreadsheet using the official rate for the day (https://www.banque-france.fr/statistiques/taux-et-cours/les-taux-de-change-salle-des-marches/parites-quotidiennes & note the 'en cliquant ici' which gives all the historical data) for about 15 years now.

OK, for my wife and I, that now involves some 46 receipts (plus a dozen or so for my 'revenus d'activité' in GBP, most being in €). I suppose it's a bit of a faff, but it takes only an hour (maximum). 

Even when I was working 100+ hours/week (35???), I did not find it difficult to fir that in.

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Stop all the worrying - why do you all do this to yourselves ?   There is a monthly english language newspaper which also publishes various 'guides'.   This year there is no written Tax guide, just a pdf; but the newspaper contained the exchange rate which is accepted by the tax authorities.   The rate is also given on their web-site so a copy, paste and print should work as well.   Below is an extract - the wording used in previous Guides - and which has been accepted for all my previous tax forms without any query by the french tax people.

'Tax officials in the Finance Ministry told (this newspaper) that a suitable method would be to take the Banque de France month-end rates for December 2018 and December 2019 (or later years - my words) and average them.   .........  This method originally came from a ministerial response to an MP for Alsace who asked about income declarations for people who work over the border.'

In previous years I have taken photocopy of the appropriate page in the Guide, and enclosed it with the tax forms.  This year the rate is £1 = 1.1499.   All we need to do is total up all the UK income under various headings, convert into euros, and then put the euro figures into the various boxes for income, pensions etc - just convert them using the above figure.   Can't think of anything more brain freeze than working out day rate for every monthly transfer of money - like having pins stuck in my eyes - and it's not necessary.

But whatever floats your boat - but if it ain't necessary - why do it !!!!!!!!!!!

Have fun with the returns - always say to myself I'll deal with them in good time - and find myself hurtling towards deadline before I know where I am !!

Chessie

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Chessie,

 

That's how I arrived at my rate, average for the year from BoF.  Not the one given in Connexion, but my financial man agreed with my figures .. as you say, add up all UK income, convert at that rate and away you go.  Impots have bigger fish to fry that worrying about UK pensioners income ...  Good luck with the forms, yes, I am usually like you, but I am on holiday in May, so started early this year!

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