Most people who come to us about the FBAR find out late, usually when a foreign bank asks for their US tax number. The good news is that it’s a disclosure, not a tax, and it’s simple to file once you know which accounts count. The bad news is that the penalties for skipping it are out of all proportion to the form, so it pays to get it right.
What is the FBAR (FinCEN Form 114)?
The Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, officially FinCEN Form 114. Once a year you list every foreign financial account you own or can sign on, with the highest value each reached during the calendar year. It goes online to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN, part of Treasury), not the IRS, and it isn’t part of your Form 1040.
The rule comes from the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering law, not the tax code; the IRS just enforces it for FinCEN. Filing it creates no tax bill. Interest and gains in those accounts go on your 1040 as usual, and the FBAR only tells Treasury the accounts exist.
Who must file an FBAR?
Any US person whose foreign accounts, combined, went over $10,000 at any point in the calendar year. Where you live doesn’t matter: a US citizen in Ohio with a savings account in Toronto is in the same position as one in London.
"US person" is wider than people expect. It covers US citizens, including dual citizens and "accidental Americans" born in the US who’ve lived abroad all their lives. It covers green-card holders, even ones who’ve moved away, until the card is formally surrendered or revoked. It covers US tax residents under the substantial presence test (broadly, enough US days over a three-year look-back, at least 31 of them this year), and US entities: corporations, partnerships, LLCs, trusts and estates formed here.
Our rule of thumb: if you file a US return and your foreign accounts together went over $10,000 at any point, assume you need an FBAR.
How does the $10,000 FBAR threshold work?
The $10,000 test is on the total of all your foreign accounts, not each one separately. For each account you take its maximum value during the year (not the average, not the year-end balance), convert it to dollars and add them up. If the total is over $10,000 you file, and you report every account, the small ones included.
The peaks don’t have to happen at the same time. Take a US citizen in Toronto whose chequing account hit $6,200 in March when a bonus landed and whose TFSA hit $5,300 in November. Eight months apart, but $6,200 + $5,300 = $11,500, so he files, and his RRSP goes on the same form. Now take someone in Mexico City with $5,800 and $3,900 at their peaks: $9,700, so no FBAR for 2025. We’d often file anyway that close: an unneeded FBAR carries no penalty, and one big deposit tips next year over.
Example: Emma, a US citizen in Manchester
Say Emma’s maximum 2025 balances, converted to dollars, were $7,400 in her UK current account (it peaked in December after her bonus), $5,100 in a cash ISA and $21,000 in her workplace defined-contribution pension. That’s $33,500, so she files and lists all three.
Even without the pension, the current account and ISA come to $12,500. The ISA is tax-free in the UK, but its interest is taxable in the US and it’s reportable. Her UK State Pension isn’t: it’s an entitlement, not an account.
Maximum value and which exchange rate to use
The maximum value is a reasonable approximation of the most the account held during the year, and periodic statements are fine as evidence as long as they fairly reflect the peak. Report whole dollars, rounding any fraction up. An account whose maximum was zero or negative goes on the form at zero.
Convert at the Treasury rate for December 31
Every account is converted using the Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange for the last day of the calendar year (December 31, 2025 for this FBAR), even if it peaked in March. They’re at fiscaldata.treasury.gov. Not today’s rate, and not your bank’s. If Treasury has no rate for a currency, use another verifiable year-end rate and note its source.
Treasury quotes foreign currency per dollar, so you divide. At an illustrative 0.80 pounds per dollar, a £4,000 peak is £4,000 ÷ 0.80 = $5,000.
Which foreign accounts go on the FBAR?
Any financial account at a financial institution outside the United States that you have a financial interest in or signature authority over. It’s where the institution sits that matters, not the currency. A US-dollar account in Singapore is foreign; a euro balance at a US bank isn’t. A foreign branch of a US bank, say a Citibank account in Hong Kong, is foreign.
That means ordinary bank accounts (current, checking, savings, time deposits, a German Tagesgeld account), foreign brokerage and fund accounts, and tax-wrapped accounts like a UK stocks and shares ISA or a Canadian TFSA. It means life insurance or annuity policies with a cash surrender value. And it means Wise or Revolut balances held by a non-US entity of the provider. Which entity holds yours varies by country, so check your account terms, and when in doubt, report it.
Pensions are the ones people forget. UK workplace pensions and SIPPs, Canadian RRSPs and RRIFs, Australian super and Hong Kong MPF accounts all go on, each at its maximum value, however small. Singapore’s CPF is a grey area because it’s a government-run scheme. Most practitioners report it as the cautious position, and so do we: an unnecessary line costs nothing, a missing one can cost a penalty. Being tax-free or tax-deferred locally never takes an account off the FBAR, and nor does living somewhere with no income tax. An American in Abu Dhabi with $26,000 in a UAE bank files just like one in Berlin.
How do I report a joint account?
Each US-person owner reports the full maximum value, not their share, plus the number of joint owners and the principal joint owner’s details. A spouse who isn’t a US person files nothing. Two US-person spouses get one shortcut: if every foreign account one of them must report is held jointly with the other, they can file a single FBAR, with the non-filing spouse signing FinCEN Form 114a (Record of Authorization). Otherwise each files their own.
Signature authority over someone else’s account
If you can move money out of a foreign account by instructing the bank directly, you have signature authority, and you generally report the account even though none of the money is yours. The usual cases are an elderly parent’s account you can sign on and your employer’s operating account.
Example: Rachel, who signs on her employer’s account
Rachel is finance director of a small consulting firm’s Singapore subsidiary and can authorize payments from its bank account, which held $400,000. She has no financial interest in the money, but she has signature authority, so it goes in the signature-authority section of her FBAR.
Officers and employees of certain entities (banks, some regulated financial institutions, US-listed companies) have exceptions, and FinCEN has at times given relief to signature-only filers. Whether one covers Rachel depends on her employer, so we’d check before treating her as exempt.
What doesn’t go on an FBAR?
Accounts at US institutions, even holding foreign investments. IRAs, 401(k)s and the TSP, wherever you live. Property, cars, share certificates or gold you hold directly rather than in an account. Government entitlements like the UK State Pension or Canada Pension Plan. And accounts you neither own nor can sign on. Some of these, directly held foreign shares for example, can still belong on Form 8938, which we come to below.
How do I file the FBAR through BSA E-Filing?
Online, through FinCEN’s BSA E-Filing System at bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov. There’s no paper version and no fee. If you’re filing your own you can use the online form without registering; professionals filing for clients register and have the client sign Form 114a.
- 1
Gather the details for every account
- Name and full address of the financial institution
- Account number and type (bank, securities, other)
- Maximum value during the year, converted at the Treasury year-end rate
- For joint accounts, the other owners’ details
- 2
Open the individual FBAR form on BSA E-Filing
You can save it and finish in more than one sitting.
- 3
Complete FinCEN Form 114
Your name, SSN or ITIN, date of birth and address; then accounts you own alone, accounts you own jointly, and accounts you can only sign on. If you’re filing late, there’s a box for the reason.
- 4
Review, sign and submit
Check every account number and dollar figure, then sign electronically. FinCEN runs basic validation before it accepts the report.
- 5
Save the confirmation and your records
Keep the submission confirmation, a PDF of the filed form and the statements you used for each maximum value.
If you have an interest in or signature authority over 25 or more foreign accounts, you only report how many there are, but you have to keep the full details on hand and produce them if asked.
When is the 2025 FBAR due?
- April 15, 2026: the due date for the 2025 FBAR.
- October 15, 2026: the extended due date, and the last one (disaster relief aside).
The extension is automatic and has nothing to do with your tax return’s extension. And the FBAR is always a calendar-year report, whatever your local tax year.
FBAR vs FATCA Form 8938: do I need both?
Often, yes, reporting the same accounts twice. Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets, came in with FATCA (the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act). It has its own thresholds and goes to the IRS with your 1040. Filing one never satisfies the other.
| FBAR (FinCEN 114) | Form 8938 (FATCA) | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed with | FinCEN, via BSA E-Filing | The IRS, attached to Form 1040 |
| Who files | Any US person, including entities | Individuals (and certain domestic entities) who must file a tax return |
| Threshold | Over $10,000 aggregate at any time in the year | Depends on filing status and where you live (below) |
| Signature-only accounts | Yes, reportable | No |
| Directly held foreign stock, interests in foreign entities | No | Yes |
| Due date | April 15, auto-extended to October 15 | With your tax return, including extensions |
The 8938 thresholds are much higher. Living in the US, you file when your foreign financial assets are over $50,000 on the last day of the year or $75,000 at any time if you’re single or married filing separately, or $100,000 / $150,000 married filing jointly. Living abroad, it’s $200,000 / $300,000 single and $400,000 / $600,000 joint. To use the abroad figures your tax home has to be in a foreign country and you have to meet the bona fide residence test or the physical presence test (330 full days abroad in a 12-month period).
Don’t count on the IRS not knowing. Under FATCA agreements with most countries, foreign banks report their US-person customers’ accounts to the IRS (that’s why they ask for your US tax number), and the IRS can match that against your FBAR and 8938.
What are the FBAR penalties?
Harsh, and on top of any tax owed. The civil maximums are adjusted for inflation; these are the figures for penalties assessed since January 17, 2025, and there was no adjustment for 2026.
Non-willful vs willful, in brief
Non-willful means you didn’t know about the requirement or made an honest mistake. The maximum is $16,536 per violation, and nothing applies if there was reasonable cause. In Bittner v. United States (2023) the Supreme Court held that a non-willful violation is counted per report, not per account, so five missed years with ten accounts each is at most five penalties, not fifty.
Willful means you knew and chose not to comply, which courts have held can include "willful blindness" or reckless disregard. The maximum is the greater of $165,353 or 50% of the account balance at the time of the violation, per account, per year. Across several accounts and years that can exceed what the accounts hold.
Example: how the two play out
Say Chris, a US citizen in Vancouver, never heard of the FBAR and missed four years with four Canadian accounts each year. After Bittner his maximum exposure is four penalties, one per missed report, not sixteen. If he comes forward through the right procedure, it’s often none at all.
Compare someone who deliberately left a $200,000 account off for three years. In principle that’s a 50% penalty on the account for each year: $300,000 of exposure on a $200,000 balance. The IRS’s penalty guidelines cap the total in practice, but the risk is real.
Willful failure to file can also be a crime: fines of up to $250,000 and up to five years in prison, more if it’s part of a pattern of illegal activity or goes with another federal violation. Prosecutions are kept for deliberate concealment, typically alongside tax evasion, not for people who didn’t know about a form.
Missed FBARs? Delinquent FBAR procedures vs Streamlined
Which route fits turns on one question: did you also leave foreign income off your tax returns? Both routes only work if the IRS hasn’t already contacted you about the missing filings, which is the best reason we know to act first.
| Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures | Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures | |
|---|---|---|
| Use when | Your tax returns were complete — all foreign income reported and tax paid — and only the FBARs are missing | Foreign income or information forms were also missing from your returns, and the failure was non-willful |
| What you file | The late FBARs, with a statement explaining why they are late | 3 years of tax returns (or amended returns), 6 years of FBARs, and a non-willful certification |
| Penalty | The IRS says it will not impose a penalty in these circumstances | Living abroad (Foreign Offshore): none. Living in the US (Domestic Offshore): 5% of the highest year-end total of foreign financial assets |
What we usually do is cover every missing year in one submission, with a specific, truthful reasonable-cause or non-willful statement, and then keep filing on time. Our guide to the Streamlined procedures goes through the eligibility tests and the certification. If there’s any chance your situation looks willful, talk to a professional before you file anything.
How long do I keep FBAR records?
Five years from the FBAR’s due date, for every account you reported: the name on the account, the account number and type, the institution’s name and address, and the maximum value. In practice, keep the year’s statements and a copy of each filed FBAR.
What FBAR mistakes do we see most?
Leaving off pensions and tax-free accounts, by a distance. After that: the year-end balance instead of the maximum, the wrong exchange rate, a joint owner reporting only their share, and forgetting an account closed during the year (it’s still reportable at its maximum while open). And US residents who assume the FBAR is only for expats, or that it went in with their tax return. It didn’t.
How we handle FBAR filing at TaxSQR
Our Expat return ($275) includes the FBAR for up to five foreign accounts, plus Form 8938 when you need it, alongside your federal return, prepared and signed by an Enrolled Agent. More accounts are $50 per extra five. If you’re behind, our Streamlined package (from $1,500) covers three years of returns and six years of FBARs.
See our FBAR filing service, expat tax filing and Streamlined catch-up filing, or the wider US expat tax guide. Our country guides cover the local accounts in more detail: UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong and Mexico. Questions about your own accounts? Get in touch.
General information, not advice for your situation. Pensions, fintech accounts and signature authority in particular turn on specific facts, so have a professional look at anything you’re unsure about.