Glossary
FBAR (FinCEN Form 114)
The annual report of foreign financial accounts that US persons must file when the combined balance of all their non-US accounts exceeds $10,000 at any point in the year.
The FBAR is filed electronically with FinCEN, not the IRS, by April 15 with an automatic extension to October 15. It covers bank, brokerage and some pension accounts, and accounts the person only has signature authority over, including a company account. US persons includes citizens, green card holders and residents by the substantial presence test, wherever they live.
Penalties for non-wilful failures run to about $16,000 per report; wilful failures are far higher. Immigrants and returning expats with dormant accounts back home are the usual accidental non-filers. A business owned by a US person may separately have Form 8938 (FATCA) obligations on the tax return itself.
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