CFM10540 - Currency transactions and accounting: changing to foreign currency accounting

Transitional cases: companies using currency accounting for the first time

This guidance describes the post-FA 2002 taxation of loan relationships, derivative contracts and FOREX.

FA00/S105 sets out transitional rules for companies moving into the FA 2000 regime for APs beginning on or after 1 January 2000.

Those transitional rules are equally relevant to companies today that change from accounting in sterling to accounting in a non-sterling currency, for example if the economic environment in which they conduct the majority of their business changes.

Rules are needed to translate the sterling values used at the end of the last period before the company adopts currency accounting, into the non-sterling equivalents. These then become the opening figures for the first set of accounts using currency accounting.

The rules require the following amounts to be translated into the currency of the accounts at the London closing rate for the last day of the immediately preceding accounting period:

FA00/S105 (2)Management expenses, losses etc, brought forward in sterling, are translated and carried forward in the currency of the accounts.
FA00/S105 (3)Capital allowance plant and machinery pool values brought forward are translated to form the opening values for the CA computation. *