Here's an overview of what we'll cover—click any section to jump ahead.
- What are the accounts included in FBAR reporting?
- Should I report accounts I closed during the last year?
- How many accounts can I report for the fee?
- How do I calculate the total value for the FBAR?
- Do I have to prove that I don’t have any foreign financial accounts?
What are the accounts included in FBAR reporting?
On FBAR, you generally need to report all foreign accounts. Here are a couple of examples of what should be included:
- All your personal accounts
- Any account that you have signing authority over
- Business accounts
- Business bank accounts that you own or have signing authority over
- Foreign Pension accounts
- Stock trading accounts
- Joint accounts with your spouse, if filing jointly
Should I report accounts I closed during the last year?
If you close a financial account, you should report it. Also, don’t forget to report the closing balance of the financial account on the FBAR FinCEN Form 114 and FATCA Form 8938.
How many accounts can I report for the fee?
The fee is charged once per year of FBAR filing, regardless how many accounts you have to report!
How do I calculate the total value for the FBAR?
Here’s an example of calculating the total balance for all your overseas financial accounts: Let’s say you have two bank accounts in Italy and one in the US. You also have an Italian pension through your employer and a life insurance policy from an Italian company that you’ve been funding for the past 10 years.
At their highest values during the year, your Italian accounts held the following:
- €6,000 in a checking account
- €3,500 in a pension account
- €2,000 in a life insurance policy with cash value
You can ignore the US account for FBAR purposes, since only foreign accounts are considered.
To determine whether you need to file the Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR), convert the total to USD using the official year-end Treasury exchange rate. According to the US Treasury’s currency exchange rate tool, €11,500 as of December 31, 2024, equals $11,966.70.
Since your combined foreign account balance exceeds $10,000, you must file an FBAR—even though no single account was over the threshold.
Even though no single account was over $10,000, the combined total of your foreign accounts exceeds the FBAR filing threshold. That means you are required to file an FBAR for the year.
Do I have to prove that I don’t have any foreign financial accounts?
If you don’t have a foreign account you don’t have to prove it. However, if you do have a foreign account and don’t report it, there can be steep monetary penalties for not filing an FBAR or Form 8938.
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