Significance of Reporting Currency

[Henning G]

Hello,

I'm reblancing my share portfolio in DeGiro. One of the stocks that I would like to buy Total Energies which is a french company traded in a few European exchanges, shows "USD" as the reporting currency in the company profile in Degiro. All the other EU stocks that I own already as well as the ones that I'm about to buy show as "Euro" as the reporting currency. What's the implications of this ? Does it mean that the transactions are converted to USD from Euro when I buy it and then back from USD to Euros when sold ? Is there a currency overhead/risk with the reporting currency being in $$$ intead of €€€ . I wonder why a French company based in France traded in europe is reporting in USD ?

Thanks/Henning

 

[peemac]

My total guess is that as it's in the energy and fuels business it's revenues and expenses are reported in dollars as most energy is traded in dollars.

 

[jpd]

If you are asking these questions, I wonder should you be buying shares at all!

Total Energies is a French company with sales and assets worldwide
The shares are bought and sold on Euronext Paris in euros

It reports it annual results in USD https://totalenergies.com/investors

Most of it's business is priced in dollars

 

[Henning G]

If you are asking these questions, I wonder should you be buying shares at all!

Total Energies is a French company with sales and assets worldwide
The shares are bought and sold on Euronext Paris in euros

It reports it annual results in USD https://totalenergies.com/investors

Most of it's business is priced in dollars

Thanks for the replies. I lived in the U.S. for 20 years until recently and my experience was only with the U.S. markets on the TDAmeritrade platform, where everything is expressed in $$$. I did very well in the last 20 years in the US stock market, while living in the US, but who hasn't ?. After moving to Europe in order to complement my TD Ameritade investment, I recently opened a DeGiro account and bought a basket of 30 well diversified stocks (EU stocks) in various sectors, so I was surprised to see Total which is based in Paris reporting in $$$. To be honest I looked into buying ETFs as well, but after reading for a month about their inhumane taxation rules, 8 years exit tax, no possibility of offsetting losses etc. 41% tax I gave up and bougth 30 EU diversified stocks: energy, IT, banking, materials , utilities, staples. I don't know of any other country in the planet that has such grotesque taxation rules for the ETFs (normally they follow the stocks tax rules). I probably won't stay in Ireland for too long anyway, the ETF taxation system and the depressing wet weather that we had for the full summer conviced me that it's time to pack sooner rather than later. Anyway for the time being anyway I will manage this bunch of EU stocks.......... below

Total
Telefonica
E.ON
BCO Santander
Sanofi-Aventis
GDF Suez
Volkswagen
ENI
BNP Paribas
Nokia
France Telecom
Deutsche Telekom
Siemens
Bayer
BCO Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria
Nestle
iberdrola
Novartis
SAP
Infineon
Alliance
Commerzebank
Unilever
Metro AG
L'Oreal

 

[Brendan Burgess]

If you are asking these questions, I wonder should you be buying shares at all!

I think it's a perfectly valid question for Henning to ask.

Having said that, you don't really need to know much about companies to buy a diversified portfolio of large stocks.

A quick look at his portfolio and they seem well diversified.

Brendan

 

[joe sod]

To be honest I looked into buying ETFs as well, but after reading for a month about their inhumane taxation rules, 8 years exit tax, no possibility of offsetting losses etc. 41% tax I gave up and bougth 30 EU diversified stocks: energy, IT, banking, materials , utilities, staples. I don't know of any other country in the planet that has such grotesque taxation rules for the ETFs (normally they follow the stocks tax rules). I probably won't stay in Ireland for too long anyway,

I think Total is also traded in new York in dollars as an ADR . Be surprised to see it listed in Europe priced in dollars.

Henning As a curiosity did you come to live in Ireland as a result of working in a big US company and came here as a supporting role or was it just purely lifestyle decision.? The fact that you have drawn attention to the ridiculous ETF taxation situation in Ireland is interesting , its been a huge debating topic on this site. I think it's pretty obvious that you were unaware of this taxation policy before you moved because it is so at odds to the international taxation treatment of ETFs.

In any case there is a public consultation on this ETF taxation policy now and if there is anecdotal evidence that this is proving to be a strong disincentive to skilled executives technicians or health care professionals moving to Ireland then that would be a powerful argument especially with government

 

[Henning G]

Henning As a curiosity did you come to live in Ireland as a result of working in a big US company and came here as a supporting role or was it just purely lifestyle decision.? The fact that you have drawn attention to the ridiculous ETF taxation situation in Ireland is interesting , its been a huge debating topic on this site. I think it's pretty obvious that you were unaware of this taxation policy before you moved because it is so at odds to the international taxation treatment of ETFs.

Hi Joe,

That's right , U.S. multinational. I came as the move to Ireland to a new position, same company, gave me a career boost but also because of my parents aging: flying from Dublin to Germany where I'm from originally is 1:30 hours and cheap so I can go to Germany every month. Flying from San Francisco it was 12 hours plus the time difference and of course it was much more expensive, so after 20 years, some time ago I moved to these shores for these reasons. Yes the personal taxation is very high compared to where I was (Texas) and the ETF taxation rules especially are unbelievable, hence I had to build my own homemade pseudo-ETF above composed of individual shares, which of course is riskier than a real ETF. So there are many positives in Ireland (nice people, good beer, relaxed lifestyle) but negatives as well (bad weather, and high personal taxation in relation to the level of services that one gets).

Henning

 

[jpd]

The portfolio seems to have doubled up on a lot of positions eg Banco Santander, BNP, Commerzbanc, BBVA or Total, ENI, Iberdrola, etc etc

But I suppose you can justify that to some extent

 

[joe sod]

and the ETF taxation rules especially are unbelievable, hence I had to build my own homemade pseudo-ETF above composed of individual shares, which of course is riskier than a real ETF. So there are many positives in Ireland (nice people, good beer, relaxed lifestyle) but negatives as well (bad weather, and high personal taxation in relation to the level of services that one gets).

Yes Henning thats the key point we now have a big state sector as a result of high personal taxes and high corporation tax receipts. The state is good at taxing like the scandinavians but not delivering like the scandinavians. Hopefully though as people like yourself spread the word and it gets back to government that more and more people internationally are aware of these silly investment taxation policies and its no longer hidden in the long grass they will have to change it.

 

[FintanJ]

Total
Telefonica
E.ON
BCO Santander
Sanofi-Aventis
GDF Suez
Volkswagen
ENI
BNP Paribas
Nokia
France Telecom
Deutsche Telekom
Siemens
Bayer
BCO Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria
Nestle
iberdrola
Novartis
SAP
Infineon
Alliance
Commerzebank
Unilever
Metro AG
L'Oreal

Hi henning
How do you manage to reclaim the dividend withholding tax on above? A lot of those companies pay dividends.

 

[Henning G]

Hi henning
How do you manage to reclaim the dividend withholding tax on above? A lot of those companies pay dividends.

Yes I do, well not me in person but I have an accountant that I see once a year and he does it for me....so I manage to pay the income tax on the dividends minus the withheld sum