When searching for exchange rates you should bear in mind what you want to use the rates for, and the type of rate you need.

HMRC have published internal guidance on the use of exchange rates for tax and accounting purposes, as part of their Business Income Manual. This guidance can be accessed via the links below:

• BIM39515 - Foreign exchange: exchange rate for tax purposes
• BIM39510 - Foreign exchange: exchange rate for accounts purposes

More general guidance on researching exchange rates can be found in our Finding current and historical exchange rates guide.

The ICAEW Library has compiled this guide to help everyone to find the exchange rates they need.

The Library enquiry team can also help ICAEW members, ACA students and other authorised users with requests for exchange rates from a variety of print and online sources. If you would like to know more about the information we can offer, please call us on +44 (0)20 7920 8620, email library@icaew.com or contact us through webchat.

HMRC publish foreign exchange rates for over 160 countries and currency zones.

Rates for recent years are available via GOV.UK:

• Monthly rates
• Yearly averages (for the year to 31st March and 31st December)
• Spot rates

Archived rates going back much further are accessible via the National Archives' UK Government Web Archive:

• Monthly rates: January 2021 –
• Yearly averages: March 2020 –
• Spot rates: March 2021 –
• Monthly rates: January 2014 – October 2023
• Monthly rates: January 2003 – October 2014
• Yearly averages and spot rates: December 2010 – March 2023
• Yearly averages and spot rates: December 1989 – March 2014

Simon's Taxes (formerly Simon's Direct Tax Service) maintained a table of foreign exchange rates, as published annually by the Inland Revenue for general use in converting foreign currency to sterling. The table provided averages for the year to 31st March and 31st December. The table was located in Binder 10 Part F3.1, and began in 1981-82.

In the online version of Simon's Taxes, Part F3.1 no longer lists exchange rates; rather, it simply provides a link to a page on the HMRC website which contains recent yearly average and spot foreign exchange rates. Parts T9.101 and T9.102 do, however, reproduce average and spot rates issued by HMRC, going back two years.

The ICAEW Library subscribes to Simon's Taxes through the LexisNexis online platform.

Simon’s Weekly Tax Intelligence reproduced the annual tables of foreign exchange rates issued by the Inland Revenue (indexed under Miscellaneous notes and news). Exchange rates are available for 1974-1991 and 1993-2001 using the binders held by the ICAEW Library & Information Service.

The rates given are as follows:

• 1974-1977: Averages for the year to the end of March and the end of December.
• 1978-2001: Averages for the year to the end of March and the end of December; spot rates for the end of March and the end of December.

The number of countries covered varies from year to year (for example the table of averages for 1984 contains rates for 80 countries compared to around 120 in 1996). The list of spot rates is much shorter, usually only covering 15-20 countries.

The edition of Gee's Tax Factbook held in the ICAEW Library collection includes some historical yearly average exchange rates and spot rates as issued by HMRC between 1998 and 2008. These figures can be found in Chapter 7 — section 1.9 covers the period December 2004 to March 2008, and section 6.4.7 covers March 1998 to December 2001.