2019 IRS and Treasury Exchange rates

The US Treasury has published the Dec 31st exchange rate for use on FBAR filings

https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/reports-statements/treasury-reporting-rates-exchange/historical.html

The IRS has published the average exchange rates that can be used for regular payments such as monthly pension payments

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/yearly-average-currency-exchange-rates

Thanks for sharing Durhamlad.

This will be my last FBAR, yippee!!

Thanks for sharing Durhamlad.

This will be my last FBAR, yippee!!

Nice.

We have all our lives doing this ....

I was just looking for this. Just started the taxes. Kind of wondering... why are the FBAR and regular yearly exchange rates are a bit different? FBAR is .758 and the other is .784. I have to do FATCA this year as well as FBAR. Is FATCA about the same amount of effort (not much).

I was just looking for this. Just started the taxes. Kind of wondering... why are the FBAR and regular yearly exchange rates are a bit different? FBAR is .758 and the other is .784. I have to do FATCA this year as well as FBAR. Is FATCA about the same amount of effort (not much).

The IRS rate is an average rate for the year which I use for calculating my UK pensions that are paid monthly.

The Treasury Rate is the rate on December 31st and is the required rate to be used for the FBAR filing.  I note the highest balance in £s in my UK accounts throughout the year and then convert to $s using the December 31st Treasury rate and am pretty sure that is the correct way to do the reporting.

The IRS rate is an average rate for the year which I use for calculating my UK pensions that are paid monthly.

The Treasury Rate is the rate on December 31st and is the required rate to be used for the FBAR filing.  I note the highest balance in £s in my UK accounts throughout the year and then convert to $s using the December 31st Treasury rate and am pretty sure that is the correct way to do the reporting.

Interesting that the IRS says, "You must express the amounts you report on your U.S. tax return in U.S. dollars. Therefore, you must translate foreign currency into U.S. dollars if you receive income or pay expenses in a foreign currency. In general, use the exchange rate prevailing (i.e., the spot rate) when you receive, pay or accrue the item". I think this is a change and that they had previously said that the IRS average rate could be used. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/yearly-average-currency-exchange-rates

For the last two years I found that the spot rate gave me a better answer than using the average, so that is what I used.

I agree with you re the methodology for FBAR.

Interesting that the IRS says, "You must express the amounts you report on your U.S. tax return in U.S. dollars. Therefore, you must translate foreign currency into U.S. dollars if you receive income or pay expenses in a foreign currency. In general, use the exchange rate prevailing (i.e., the spot rate) when you receive, pay or accrue the item". I think this is a change and that they had previously said that the IRS average rate could be used. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/yearly-average-currency-exchange-rates

For the last two years I found that the spot rate gave me a better answer than using the average, so that is what I used.

I agree with you re the methodology for FBAR.

I have a spreadsheet and for each month that my pensions pay in I convert to $s and I also use the average IRS published rate on the total. I then use whatever figure is to my advantage.  It doesn’t really matter these days now that I am back in England as the foreign tax credits zero out my US taxes.

From your quote I believe you are correct about the spot rates being the method the IRS wants. Wonder why they still publish an average rate?