Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Foreign Currency and Currency Exchange Rates

You must express the amounts you report on your U.S. tax return in U.S. dollars. If you receive all or part of your income or pay some or all of your expenses in foreign currency, you must translate the foreign currency into U.S. dollars. How you do this depends on your functional currency. Your functional currency generally is the U.S. dollar unless you are required to use the currency of a foreign country.
You must make all federal income tax determinations in your functional currency. The U.S. dollar is the functional currency for all taxpayers except some qualified business units (QBUs). A QBU is a separate and clearly identified unit of a trade or business that maintains separate books and records.
Even if you have a QBU, your functional currency is the dollar if any of the following apply.

  • You conduct the business in dollars.
  • The principal place of business is located in the United States.
  • You choose to or are required to use the dollar as your functional currency.
  • The business books and records are not kept in the currency of the economic environment in which a significant part of the business activities is conducted.

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