Almost every tax deadline is a postmark deadline. If your return is postmarked by midnight of the deadline day it’s considered timely filed. If you file it electronically, and it’s filed by midnight, it’s timely. Of course, with every rule there’s an exception. That exception is definitely the FBAR.
The FBAR–Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts–must be electronically filed. It’s due on June 30th and there are no extensions. So if I file it by midnight local time on June 30th I’m fine, right?
My software company says no. Here’s the message they sent me:
As a reminder, taxpayers that are required to report foreign bank and financial accounts must file Form 114 electronically by June 30th, and the returns must be either Accepted or Accepted with Errors by midnight, June 30th. We strongly recommend that 114 returns be filed no later than 6PM in your time zone to allow for agency processing. FinCEN does not recognize an e-postmark to timely filing, unlike the IRS. Additionally, there is no extension of time to file 114 FBAR returns.
So I took a look at an FBAR I submitted this past week:
Yes, it took over two days to accept the FBAR…and that’s what I’ve been seeing consistently. Assuming my software company is right, that means the true deadline for FBARs is Saturday…which I find hard to believe. I doubt a court would look at an FBAR filed on June 30th (during normal hours) as untimely but who knows? I’ve seen too many strange things with the FBAR this month.
My advice is simple: File the FBAR asap–it at all possible by Saturday. You’re likely fine if you file it by 6 pm in your time zone on Monday, but the penalties are ridiculous on this. As an aside, I searched the FINCEN website, their FAQs on the FBAR, and the IRS website pages on the FBAR to see if I could find any confirmation of what my software company said. I couldn’t; unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it’s not true.
Tags: FBAR
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Russ,
I called my software company, CCH Prosystem, about this yesterday. I was told the form had to be transmitted by the software company to the IRS by the deadline date.
Richard H. Levy, CPA, MS TAX
This is what I felt, too. The policy of it being considered untimely if not accepted by June 30th was ridiculous (even for the ridiculousness of the FBAR).