sb3502

Thank-you. This is potentially very helpful. To close this off so that the answer is definitive, can you point to a Capital Gains Tax source that says that such average, monthly or spot rates can be used? The Finance Act does not say this and I could not find any guidance in the HMRC CG manual. It may be there and I just haven't found it. I suppose it could also have been resolved in case law at a tribunal, say. I am conscious that the devil is in the detail and, for example, permissible exchange rate usage differs between, say, foreign business profit calculation and capital gain calculation. I believe it is incumbent on me to avoid "careless" errors by ensuring that I follow an officially mandated approach. Alternatively, if it is the case that HMRC regards comments from HMRC staff here as being sufficient for this purpose, please let me know. Thank-you again for addressing the question. and can be relied upon in the context of complying with legislation and official guidance.

You've posted a general link to all HMRC content at the National Archives (NA). There is nothing there with exchange rate or similar terms in the title. Nevertheless, I had already found the following NA links from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales site. Weekly rates only going back to 2011 https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20141006105738/http:/customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageImport_RatesCodesTools Spot rates for March and December 1989-2014 https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20141203183220/http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/exrate/index.htm It is my understanding (from an accountancy source, I can find nothing in the HMRC CG manual) that calculations must use the actual day closing rate. So none of these rates would be suitable. If that is incorrect, could you confirm which of the rates (March and December spot rates) or weekly rates are acceptable for Capital Gains calculations. If it's correct, can you please go back to my original question and tell us where we get these mysterious official rates. Presumably HMRC has them otherwise you could not challenge a calculation which appeared to use incorrect rates.

Two days and no answer. Straightforward question....where do we get acceptable "official" rates for before 2018 since HMRC thinks it's a good idea to remove them from your website. There's no official definition fo "London closing" (not even within the Finance Act) and sources for historic exchange rates do not use this term. So what do we do?

Rather than posting a new, near identical question.... Can you build on this answer please? For historic exchange rates, it is impractical to suggest that we use a national newspaper. I don't happen to have one lying around from 1997, 2004, and 2010 which are the dates I need. I can get historic exchange rates (e.g. from Yahoo! Finance or OFX), but none of these sources specify if they are London closing rate. HMRC provided rates only go back to 2014 as far as I can see and are only weekly (so not strictly suitable for CGT purposes). It does not seem unreasonable that if HMRC set a rule for a specific exchange rate source to be used, that you indicate a practically available source for such rates.