# few tax tips in france



## bissop (Apr 2, 2015)

a few tips for the dealing with your US taxes that I found so far.

1. There is a race condition in between filling taxes in the US (april 17) and filling taxes in france (may 17 declaration, but bill received with amount due in Sep timeframe). you can take the classical extension from April to October 15. But less known is that you can actually extend to December 15 in order to get plenty of time to get your france tax bill and enough time to deal with a "reclamation contencieuse" if the French Irs messed up the calculations.. 

2. The US allows you to use an average convertion rate for the Euro/USD instead of using on the day convertion.. This makes your life a lot easier to compute stuff back in $.

3. Before you use the Foreign Earned income tax exclusion, think twice, because
if you change you mind and you 'cancel" that choice the following year, then you need to wait 5 years before you can use it again.. if you want to use earlier, you can , but you have to ask the irs for tax rulling (>5000$). you have to be very carefull with this if you are self-employed because your cotisations sociales vary a lot
from year 1 to year 3...


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Just a few comments on your suggestions:

1. Technically speaking, your US filings are on a "cash basis" meaning that if you want to use the Foreign Tax Credit, you should be taking the credit for what you actually paid in 2014 - i.e. what you paid the fisc after receiving your tax bill in September, 2014. This can get tricky if you're paying your 2013 taxes on a monthly basis, so many folks just take the amount of the assessment received in 2014 as the amount of their FTC and the IRS has no problem with this approach. There is no need to extend until the tax assessment is received in 2015.

2. The IRS also publishes a list of average conversion rates by year. Yearly Average Currency Exchange Rates

3. I think you mean the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (which is the $97K exclusion against earned income). It's the Foreign Tax Credit you want to think carefully about taking, because it will count as having "rescinded" your election to use the FEIE for the five years you mention. 

But actually, if you're self-employed, the amount you pay in "cotisations" have little, if any, effect on your US taxes. If you're speaking of the French AE scheme, just be aware that you will have to provide regular "financial statements" for your business if you go the FTC route, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of the AE. Given that you can exclude your entire AE revenue under the FEIE without having to produce Schedule C financials, you may want to consider your options carefully.
Cheers,
Bev


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## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

For the record, the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (IRS Form 2555 or 2555EZ) is $99,200 in tax year 2014 and $100,800 in tax year 2015. For a married couple filing jointly, including for spouses that make Section 6013(g) elections, this figure is per spouse, with each spouse allocated his/her own FEIE. The IRS adjusts this figure for inflation. The Foreign Housing Exclusion and any other still available exclusions, exemptions, deductions, and credits are in addition to these figures.


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