A tiny little script to get USD to GBP conversion rate for a given date from HMRC

hmrc_tax_usd.py

import sys
from typing import Dict, List
from datetime import datetime
import requests
from xml.etree import ElementTree


BASE_HMRC_URL = 'http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/softwaredevelopers/rates/' #exrates-monthly-0123.XML

def main():
    if len(sys.argv) < 2:
        raise Exception("You must supply the date in DD/MM/YYYY format")

    parsed_date = datetime.strptime(sys.argv[1], "%d/%m/%Y")
    f_month = parsed_date.strftime("%m")
    f_year = parsed_date.strftime("%y")
    # print(f"Getting USD -> GBP rates for {parsed_date.month}/{parsed_date.year}")
    url = f"{BASE_HMRC_URL}/exrates-monthly-{f_month}{f_year}.XML"
    # print(f"URL is {url}")
    response = requests.get(url)

    tree = ElementTree.fromstring(response.content)
    for child in tree:
        if child.tag == 'exchangeRate' and child.find('./currencyCode').text == 'USD':
            rate = float(child.find('./rateNew').text)
            print(f"{1/rate}")


# Run this with input `02/1/2022` and get the USD -> GBP exchange rate from HMRC
if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()