Rates of exchange

I have had advice to use XE.com rates of exchange, and I found the below link on HMRC, what are you guys using for rates?  Am I being anal  I do have a very simple tax situation and if I did not live up here in Never, Never land I would go have it done for me.


https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-exchange-rates-for-2017-monthly

I have had advice to use XE.com rates of exchange, and I found the below link on HMRC, what are you guys using for rates?  Am I being anal  I do have a very simple tax situation and if I did not live up here in Never, Never land I would go have it done for me.


https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-exchange-rates-for-2017-monthly

For HMRC I use the average for the year to March because it fits best with the tax year here.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/exchange-rates-for-customs-and-vat-yearly

Just did a bunch of math,  with XE.Com daily rates verse Avg for the year, slightly less tax burden with XE.com but for my mental health I will use avg. for the year.

Just did a bunch of math,  with XE.Com daily rates verse Avg for the year, slightly less tax burden with XE.com but for my mental health I will use avg. for the year.

I believe you should only use the average rates for income that is received in regular payments such as a monthly pension.  For sporadic payments such as the sale of stocks, bonds or other assets you should be using the spot rate on the day of the sale.

Following the links above HMRC also provides spot dates for 31st March and some other dates. Looking up XE.com historical dates shows the rates to be almost identical to the HMRC spot rates.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/exchange-rates-for-customs-and-vat-yearly

With my UK pensions I use a spreadsheet and calculate the conversion to $s every month on the month they arrive and also in January I use the published IRS average exchange rate for the previous year and invariably the average rate is better for me in doing my IRS tax return.