A United States person, including a citizen, resident, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, trust and estate, must file an FBAR to report:
- A financial interest in or signature or other authority over at least one financial account located outside the United States if
- The aggregate value of those foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year reported.
Generally, an account at a financial institution located outside the United States is a foreign financial account. Whether the account produced taxable income has no effect on whether the account is a foreign financial account for FBAR purposes.
But, you dont need to report foreign financial accounts that are:
- Correspondent/Nostro accounts,
- Owned by a governmental entity,
- Owned by an international financial institution,
- Maintained on a United States military banking facility,
- Held in an individual retirement account (IRA) you own or are beneficiary of,
- Held in a retirement plan of which youre a participant or beneficiary, or
- Part of a trust of which youre a beneficiary, if a U.S. person (trust, trustee of the trust or agent of the trust) files an FBAR reporting these accounts.
You dont need to file an FBAR for the calendar year if:
- All your foreign financial accounts are reported on a consolidated FBAR.
- All your foreign financial accounts are jointly-owned with your spouse and:
- You completed and signed FinCEN Form 114a authorizing your spouse to file on your behalf, and your spouse reports the jointly-owned accounts on a timely-filed, signed FBAR.
Note: Income tax filing status, such as married-filing-jointly and married-filing-separately has no effect on your qualification for this exception.
When to File
The FBAR is an annual report, due April 15 following the calendar year reported.
Youre allowed an automatic extension to October 15 if you fail to meet the FBAR annual due date of April 15. You dont need to request an extension to file the FBAR.