I just days ago solved a minor, but real 2021 tax problem related to the 1975 USSR ruble exchange rate.
My significant other and I own a modest countryside property in Latvia, EU. We live in Belgium. Belgian real estate taxes on foreign property are calculated based upon a fictitious 1975 rental income. Don't ask why.
Only:
- Latvia was Soviet occupied in 1975.
- There were no market rates for home rentals in 1975 Soviet Latvia.
- Belgium used the Belgian franc at the time and has moved to the euro since.
- The Soviet Union at the time used rubles. Trustworthy exchange rates were tricky.
- Since 1975, Latvia has gone through Soviet ruble (1975-1991), Latvian Ruble or "repšiki" (1991-1993), Latvian lats (1991-2013) and euro (2014- current).
I just know that:
- A decent 1970's Soviet wage would have been around 100 SUR.
- Housing usually cost about 3 percent of one's wage. Let's say 3 SUR/month, or 36 SUR/year.
- In 1975, USDSUR was about 0.73 using the limited use highly artificial official exchange rate [0].
- On 19750701, USDBEF was 35.44 BEF [1].
- BEF was converted to EUR in 2001 at 40.3399 BEF.
So the highest possible taxation base for our real estate taxation probably should be 43.32€ (36 SUR/.73 USDSUR*35.44USDBEF/40.3390BEFEUR). Quite sure the tax man will be amused.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_ruble#Historical_offici...
[1] https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/bank-of-england-spot/histo...