FBAR — Report of Foreign Accounts in the US

The FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts), officially FinCEN Form 114, is a mandatory report for all US persons who had foreign bank or financial accounts with a combined balance of more than $10,000 on any day of the calendar year. It is filed separately from the 1040 tax return, with FinCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network), not the IRS. Who is required to file: • US citizens — living anywhere in the world • Green Card holders (lawful permanent residents) • Immigrants who have met the substantial presence test • Tax residents under dual-status rules • US-registered LLCs, Corps, Trusts, and Estates with foreign accounts Which accounts count as "foreign": • Bank accounts (checking, savings, term deposits) • Brokerage / investment accounts • Mutual funds on foreign platforms • Certain insurance policies with cash value (whole life, universal) • Accounts at foreign crypto exchanges (Binance, KuCoin, Bybit, OKX) — if the account also holds fiat currency or securities. An account holding only cryptocurrency is not reportable under the current rules (FinCEN Notice 2020-2), although FinCEN has said it intends to add virtual currency to the FBAR rules • Certain foreign retirement accounts (depends on the structure) • Signature authority — if you have signing authority over someone else's account Key point: the $10K threshold is the AGGREGATE (combined) balance across all foreign accounts, not each one separately. If you have €5K in one account + €3K in another ≈ $8-9K depending on the EUR/USD rate — no FBAR is needed. If €5K + €4K + $2K ≈ $13K — an FBAR is required. 2026 deadlines: • April 15, 2026 — the main deadline to file the FBAR for 2025 • October 15, 2026 — automatic extension (no request needed; the extension is granted automatically under FinCEN notice 2016-1) Filing is done through the BSA E-Filing System (FinCEN) (electronic only; paper forms are not accepted). Penalties for missing it (maximum amounts adjusted for inflation by FinCEN — 31 CFR 1010.821, for penalties assessed on or after January 17, 2025): • Non-willful violation: up to $16,536 per report — that is, per year, not per account (Bittner v. United States, 2023) • Willful violation: the greater of $165,353 OR 50% of the account balance (basis — 31 USC §5321(a)(5)) • Willful violations can also be prosecuted criminally — up to a $250,000 fine and/or 5 years in prison; up to $500,000 and/or 10 years if combined with another violation of law or part of a pattern of illegal activity over $100,000 in 12 months (31 USC §5322) The official text of the regulation — 31 CFR 1010.350 (Reports of foreign financial accounts). The IRS actively checks — thanks to FATCA, foreign banks automatically report accounts of US persons. If you have an account in Cyprus, Georgia, the UAE, or Turkey — the IRS most likely already knows.