FOREIGN BANK ACCOUNTS REPORT AND SPECIFIED FOREIGN FINANCIAL ASSETS
A United States person must file an FBAR if that person has a financial interest in or signature authority over any financial account(s) outside of the United States and the aggregate maximum value of the account(s) exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year. The due date for filing FBAR is April 15.
Financial account includes the following types of accounts:
A financial account is foreign when it is located outside of the United States, which includes the following places:
A United States person has a financial interest in the following situations:
Signature authority is the authority of an individual (alone or in conjunction with another individual) to control the disposition of assets held in a foreign financial account by direct communication (whether in writing or otherwise) to the bank or other financial institution that maintains the financial account.
Typically, a financial account that is maintained with a financial institution located outside of the United States is a foreign financial account.
You may be subject to civil monetary penalties and/or criminal penalties for FBAR reporting and/or recordkeeping violations. Assertion of penalties depends on facts and circumstances. Civil FBAR penalty maximums in Title 31 of the United States Code are adjusted annually for inflation. Please refer to Publication 5569, Report of Foreign Bank & Financial Accounts (FBAR) Reference Guide for information about criminal penalties.
FBAR is NOT part of the income tax return preparation service. If you engage us for FBAR service to Department of Treasury, there will be a separate charge for the service. There will usually be a separate line item on our tax preparation service invoice if we provide the service to you for the first time.
Specified Foreign Financial Assets
For an unmarried individual or married individual filing separately living in the US who has an interest in one or more specified foreign financial assets having an aggregate value exceeding either $50,000 on the last day of the tax year or $75,000 at any time during the year ($100,000 and $150,000, respectively, for married individuals filing a joint return), a statement of specified foreign financial assets is required to be attached to his/her US income tax return.
For an unmarried individual or married individual filing separately living outside the US who has an interest in one or more specified foreign financial assets having an aggregate value exceeding either $200,000 on the last day of the tax year or $300,000 at any time during the year ($400,00 and $600,000, respectively, for married individuals filing a joint return), a statement of specified foreign financial assets is required to be attached to his/her US income tax return.
Specified foreign financial assets include financial accounts maintained by foreign financial institutions and other assets not held in accounts maintained by financial institutions, such as stock or securities issued by non-US persons (including stock or securities issued by a person organized under the laws of a US possession), financial institutions or contracts with issuers or counterparts hat are non-US persons (including financial instruments issued by a person organized under the laws of a US possession), and interests in certain foreign entities. A specified foreign financial interest does not include foreign real estate, the direct ownership of foreign currency, shares in a US mutual funds tha owns foreign stock and securities, or brokerage accounts maintained by US financial institutions.