FBAR and Form 8938 Thresholds for 2026

TL;DR

• FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is required for any US person whose foreign financial accounts together exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year, counting accounts you own and accounts you can only sign on. It goes to FinCEN, not with your tax return.
• Calendar year 2026 FBAR: due April 15, 2027, with an automatic extension to October 15, 2027. No request is needed.
• Form 8938 is attached to your income tax return. Thresholds start at $50,000 on December 31 or $75,000 at any time (not married, living in the US) and go up to $400,000 / $600,000 (married filing jointly, living abroad).
• Filing one form doesn't replace the other; many people file both.
• FBAR penalty caps for penalties assessed on or after January 17, 2025: non-willful up to $16,536 per report; willful up to the greater of $165,353 or 50% of the balance. No newer adjustment had been published as of early October 2026.
• Form 8938 penalties: $10,000, plus $10,000 per 30 days if you still haven't filed 90 days after an IRS notice (up to $50,000 more), and a 40% penalty on underpaid tax tied to undisclosed assets.
• Crypto: under FinCEN Notice 2020-2, a foreign account holding only virtual currency is not currently reportable on the FBAR.

2026 rules at a glance

Form 8938 thresholds by filing status and residence

You file if the total value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than either amount in your row (Treas. Reg. §1.6038D-2(a)). Abroad means a qualified individual under IRC §911(d)(1): a foreign tax home plus either bona fide residence abroad for a full tax year (citizens) or 330 full days abroad in 12 months. These figures are fixed in the regulation, not indexed, so they are unchanged for 2026.

A specified individual is a US citizen, a resident alien for any part of the year, a nonresident alien who elected to be treated as a resident under IRC §6013(g) or (h), or certain bona fide residents of Puerto Rico and other possessions (Treas. Reg. §1.6038D-1(a)(2)). More detail: FBAR vs Form 8938.

Who files the FBAR

• US persons (31 CFR 1010.350(b)): citizens, including children; residents, meaning resident aliens under IRC §7701(b), which covers green card holders and people who meet the substantial presence test; and entities formed under US law, including LLCs. A disregarded LLC still files its own FBAR.
• Financial interest: you are the owner of record or hold legal title, or you hold the account through an agent, a corporation or partnership you own more than 50% of, or certain trusts.
• Signature authority: you can control the disposition of the account's assets by direct communication with the institution, alone or jointly with someone else (31 CFR 1010.350(f)). Some employees of regulated or listed companies are exempt.
• Accounts: bank, securities and other financial accounts, including cash-value insurance or annuity policies and foreign mutual funds. Participants don't report accounts held by their US IRA or 401(a) plan.
• How to count: take each account's maximum value during the year, convert it at the Treasury rate for December 31, and add the results. If the total exceeds $10,000, you report all your foreign accounts. Our FBAR calculator does the math.
• Spouses: one spouse can report for both if all of the other spouse's accounts are jointly owned and both sign Form 114a; otherwise each spouse files.

Deadlines for 2026 accounts

• FBAR: April 15, 2027, automatically extended to October 15, 2027. The regulation (31 CFR 1010.306(c)) still says June 30, but P.L. 114-41 (2015) moved the date to April 15, and FinCEN extends it automatically.
• Form 8938: with your 2026 return by its due date, including extensions. No income tax return required means no Form 8938, even above the threshold.

Virtual currency

Under FinCEN Notice 2020-2, the FBAR regulations do not currently treat a foreign account holding virtual currency as reportable, so it is not reported unless it also holds other reportable assets, such as fiat currency. FinCEN said it intends to propose a change; we found no proposed or final rule in the Federal Register as of October 2026. The Form 8938 instructions (Rev. 11/2021) do not address digital assets directly, so treat foreign crypto holdings on Form 8938 as an open question.

FBAR penalties in 2026

• The adjusted figures apply to penalties assessed on or after January 17, 2025 (90 FR 5629). The eCFR text current as of October 7, 2026 shows no later adjustment; check for a newer one before relying on them.
• In Bittner v. United States, 598 U.S. 85 (2023), the Supreme Court held that the non-willful penalty applies per report, not per account: one missed FBAR with 20 accounts is one violation. The case did not address willful penalties.
• No non-willful penalty applies if the violation was due to reasonable cause and the balance was properly reported (31 U.S.C. §5321(a)(5)(B)(ii)).
• The assessment period for a civil FBAR penalty is 6 years (31 U.S.C. §5321(b)(1)). The IRS says to keep account records for five years from the FBAR due date.

Form 8938 penalties and the statute of limitations

• Failure to file: $10,000 (IRC §6038D(d)(1)). If you still haven't filed 90 days after the IRS mails a notice, $10,000 more for each 30-day period, up to $50,000 (IRC §6038D(d)(2)). Spouses filing jointly are treated as one person for this penalty. Reasonable cause is a defense (IRC §6038D(g)), but foreign secrecy laws are not reasonable cause.
• Underpayment: 40% of the underpayment attributable to an undisclosed foreign financial asset, instead of the usual 20% (IRC §6662(j)).
• Statute of limitations: the assessment period stays open until 3 years after you furnish the missing information (IRC §6501(c)(8)); with reasonable cause, only the related items stay open. Omitting more than $5,000 of income from such assets extends the period to 6 years (IRC §6501(e)(1)(A)(ii)).

Your situation → FBAR? → 8938?

Sources

• FinCEN — Report Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts
• FinCEN — FBAR filing instructions (PDF)
• FinCEN — FBAR due date notice (PDF)
• FinCEN Notice 2020-2 — virtual currency (PDF)
• 31 CFR 1010.350
• 31 CFR 1010.306
• 31 CFR 1010.821 (eCFR)
• Federal Register, 90 FR 5629 (Jan. 17, 2025)
• 31 U.S.C. §5321
• Bittner v. United States (2023)
• IRS — Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)
• IRS — Instructions for Form 8938
• IRS — Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR requirements
• Treas. Reg. §1.6038D-2
• 26 U.S.C. §6038D

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