You must report all income in U.S. dollar equivalents. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has no official exchange rate. Any posted exchange rate that is used consistently is acceptable. For additional exchange rates, check the U.S. treasury website at http://fms.treas.gov/intn.html#rates. Taxpayers generally use the yearly average exchange rate to report foreign income that was regularly received throughout the year. If you had a few foreign transactions on particular days however, you may prefer to use the exchange rates for such days.
Below are unofficial average exchange rates for selected currencies. Amount shown is one foreign currency unit to $1.00. For example, 1,000 GBP would convert to $1,560 (£1,000 divided by 0.641 = $1,560).
Please note these are unofficial rates and supplied solely for the convenience of our customers.
The years 2000-2009 plus information on the current exchange rate are available as a PDF (800Kb, 3 pages) suitable for printing on US letter-sized paper in portrait format.
The 2009 exchange rate is U.S. $1.565 = £1.00
| Entity/Country | Currency | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| European Union | Euro | 0.719 | 0.683 | 0.731 |
| United Kingdom | Pound | 0.641 | 0.545 | 0.500 |
| Sweden | Krona | 7.652 | 6.594 | 6.760 |
| Switzerland | Franc | 1.086 | 1.083 | 1.200 |
| South Africa | Rand | 8.445 | 8.275 | 7.069 |
| Norway | Krone | 6.298 | 5.647 | 5.864 |
| Iceland | Kronur | 125.041 | 88.590 | 64.229 |
| Denmark | Koruna | 5.356 | 5.096 | 5.445 |
| Canada | Dollar | 1.142 | 1.067 | 1.074 |
| Australia | Dollar | 1.281 | 1.197 | 1.195 |
For more information regarding U.S. taxes, please contact the IRS office at the U.S. Embassy in London directly. Their details can be found on our website at http://london.usembassy.gov/irs/index.htm.
I am currently a professor at Columbia University in New York, but will retire at the end of this month of February and return to London, which is my primary residence, and where I have lived since 1965. I have dual citizenship, US and UK. While in New York for the past ten years I have been paying American income tax, returns filed through an accountant here in New York. Back in London, with no residence at all kept in New York, I shall revert to paying UK income tax with the Inland Revenue, which I did for the years subsequent to my coming to Columbia ten years ago. I understand the agreement between the US and the UK that up to a certain sum, i.e.exclusion, one does not pay double income tax, and am aware of other refinements. My question is: would it be better, and cost saving, for me to file my tax returns for the past year at the Embassy in London, where I shall be living permanently from the end of February of this year? I would be most grateful for a reply, with thanks in anticipation.
David Plante
Passport number: 701701209
Mr. Plante – You should contact the IRS office in the Embassy directly. Their contact information can be found on our website at http://london.usembassy.gov/irs/index.htm.