HMRC publishes a monthly exchange rate on the penultimate Thursday of each month, based on the midday rate the day before publication, and that rate applies to customs declarations and VAT calculations for the following calendar month; separate yearly-average rates are published each 31 March and 31 December for other purposes.
What hmrc exchange rate customs vat means
The UK government's trade tariff service states these rates are used when working out the customs value of imported goods, and that exchange rates are published by HMRC on the penultimate Thursday of every month, apply to the following calendar month, and represent rates as of midday the day before publication. This monthly rate is one of three HMRC currency series - monthly rates for regular declarations, yearly averages published twice a year, and spot rates for specific cases - so a customs or VAT calculation should confirm which of the three the relevant guidance requires.
| Publication day | penultimate Thursday of the month |
|---|---|
| Rate basis | midday, the day before publication |
| Applies to | the following calendar month |
| Illustrated rate | 1.1700 EUR per £1 |
| €10,000 invoice converted | £8,547.01 |
What is the HMRC exchange rate used for customs and VAT, and how often does it change?: worked example
Suppose the rate published for next month is 1.1700 euros per pound. A €10,000 invoice for imported goods converts to sterling by dividing by that rate: €10,000 divided by 1.1700 is £8,547.01, the customs value used for that declaration. A shipment cleared in the following month, after a new rate is published, would use the newly published figure instead.
How to calculate hmrc exchange rate customs vat
Identify the calendar month the transaction falls in, then use the HMRC monthly rate published for that month, not the rate current on the transaction date if the two differ. Convert a foreign-currency invoice to sterling by dividing by the euros/dollars-per-pound convention that HMRC's table uses, matching the currency listed.
Use the relevant inputs with these related Calculatort pages: currency conversion tool · foreign transaction fee calculator · IRS yearly-average rate guide.
Common mistakes
Do not use a same-day market rate instead of the HMRC monthly figure for a customs declaration, or apply next month's published rate to a transaction dated in the current month. Do not confuse the withdrawn legacy CSV/XML collection, retired in October 2023, with the current Trade Tariff service pages.
Where this calculation stops
HMRC's monthly rate does not include a commercial provider's transfer fee or spread, does not apply to every currency pair or transaction type, and specific customs procedures can require the yearly-average or spot-rate alternative instead of the monthly rate. Confirm the applicable series in HMRC's own guidance for the transaction type.
A second worked conversion, using the year-end spot rate instead
Not every customs or VAT calculation uses the monthly rate this guide's main example relies on. HMRC also publishes a spot rate at midday on March 31 and December 31 each year, and a separate average rate on those same two dates covering the twelve preceding monthly files. Suppose the December 31 spot rate for the euro is 1.1650 euros per pound. The same €10,000 invoice used above, converted at that spot rate instead of the monthly rate, gives €10,000 divided by 1.1650, or £8,583.69 - a different sterling figure than the £8,547.01 produced by the monthly rate, because spot and monthly rates are two different published series with two different valid uses.
Three HMRC currency series side by side
| Series | Published | Basis | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly rate | penultimate Thursday of each month | midday, the day before publication | most customs declarations and VAT for the following month |
| Spot rate | March 31 and December 31 | midday of that date | transactions specifically tied to that date |
| Average rate | March 31 and December 31 | mean of the twelve preceding monthly files | calculations that require a period average rather than one date |
The dispute this guide resolves: which of the three series applies
Because HMRC maintains three separate exchange-rate series on the same Trade Tariff service, a customs valuation or VAT calculation should confirm which series the relevant procedure requires before picking a rate, rather than defaulting to whichever page loads first. The monthly rate is the general-purpose default named in this guide's main example; a declaration whose own guidance calls for a period average, or a valuation date that falls exactly on March 31 or December 31, needs the average or spot series instead, and using the wrong one produces a defensible-looking but incorrect sterling figure.
Checking the monthly-rate conversion by reversing it
To verify the £8,547.01 result from the monthly-rate example, multiply it back by the same 1.1700 rate: £8,547.01 times 1.1700 returns €10,000.00, confirming the original invoice amount. The same check applies to the spot-rate example above: £8,583.69 times 1.1650 returns €10,000.00. Because HMRC's monthly and spot rates are quoted the same way - foreign-currency units per pound - the multiply-back check works identically for either series, and a check that fails signals the wrong rate was used, not a rounding issue at these amounts.
What happens when a shipment crosses a rate-change boundary
Because the monthly rate applies to a full calendar month regardless of the exact clearance day within it, two shipments of the identical €10,000 invoice cleared on the last day of one month and the first day of the next can use two different published rates even though only a few hours separate them. A declaration prepared in advance should confirm which month's rate applies to the actual clearance date, not the date the paperwork was drafted, since the two can fall in different HMRC monthly-rate periods.
Why the withdrawn CSV/XML collection still shows up in searches
HMRC's legacy exchange-rate collection, distributed as downloadable CSV and XML files, was formally withdrawn in October 2023 in favor of the current Trade Tariff service pages, but archived copies and old bookmarks to the withdrawn collection still circulate. A conversion built against a cached copy of that withdrawn file will not reflect any rate published after the withdrawal date, even though the file's own formatting looks identical to the live service's export.
A worked example using the average rate for a full-year comparison
The average rate published on December 31 covers the mean of the twelve preceding monthly files rather than one point-in-time reading, which makes it suited to a different kind of comparison than either the monthly or spot rate. Suppose the published average rate for the euro over a given twelve-month period is 1.1580. Converting the same €10,000 invoice at that average rate gives €10,000 divided by 1.1580, or £8,635.58 - a third sterling figure, alongside the £8,547.01 monthly-rate result and the £8,583.69 spot-rate result already worked out above, all valid for different purposes on the identical invoice. None of the three figures is wrong on its own; each answers a differently scoped question about the same underlying transaction.
Source and verification
The UK government's Trade Tariff service states HMRC's monthly exchange rates are published on the penultimate Thursday of each month, apply to the following calendar month, and are used for customs valuation and VAT. Read the named source. Verify the source date and the controlling statement, agreement, payroll record, or accounting record before relying on the illustrated result.