Rambling archer

Does anybody know the official rate of exchange to be used for 2020 when sorting out tax return for Portugal - as in, incomes received in GB Pounds but obviously to be declared in Euros on the PT tax form, to be added to other incomes? Perhaps it has not been announced yet - tax forms are to be completed from April to June, so admin might not have decided yet?
Others might be interested in US dollars, Canadian Dollars etc, so is there a chart produced perhaps?

TonyJ1

European Central Bank rates = Bank of Portugal

Fluffyhead

Is there an official rate of exchange? When we arrived here 13 years ago we were told by finanças to use the rate of exchange on the day we received the money in the UK so that's what we've always done. An official rate would be a lot easier!

TonyJ1

The BCE )Bank of Portugal also publishes the same rates) rate is the official rate. However if you effectively receive less and can prove it, probably ok - eg if a pension is directly transferred to a PT bank account

scot47

Offial, fixed rates between currencies ended when The Bretton Woods Agreement disintegrated.

TonyJ1

You are missing the point - you have to have a number when converting foreign currency to PT currency when preparing PT tax returns - you cannot use FT indicative rates or other databases, those have no legal backing. If the transaction was converted ie being paid into a Euro account, then the effective rate can be used

dingg

You're doing it the way I will be doing it in the future, just 12 calculations a year, not too onerous imo

Rambling archer

I wonder then where you get the exchange rate for the day it arrived in your UK bank account as Pounds, in each of the months you have received it - be it pension, bank interest, shares dividends, etc etc - scattered throughout the year - nightmare! In Spain an official rate was declared for the tax year - a sort of averaging out over the year as I understood it - so you could lump together your UK Pounds incomes over the year and apply a flat conversion to the total to give you Euros to declare ... So Portugal doesn't do this? Gosh - !!!
Anything received into a Portuguese bank account is already in Euros so that amount is totted up for the declaration and "proofs" can be provided via the bank if need be.

Red Eric

From the Bank of Portugal's currency converter page?

Fluffyhead

We use Xe.com which gives historical rates for every day. We have a lot of bits going in and out so does take a some time but not too bad.

TonyJ1

Xe.com and similar sites are not official sites - though unlikely to be challenged by a tax inspector (but he/she could)

Rambling archer

OK - looks like that is the way to go - what a pain!

Red Eric

If you're going to have to sift through statements to sort out what income you've had and when, it's only one small extra step to do the conversions.

Not all that different to totting up income paid into PT accounts.

EU.flag

For simplicity purpose, particularly if NHR, you can use exchange rate on 31 Dec. Cant find Financas page, but below link explains it well.

https://www.theportugalnews.com/news...ures-1-7/53163

Rambling archer

That is useful and surprisingly clear - thanks. Right then- delving into files I go with RedE's link to the exchange rates-
Cheers everyone
RA