Ten days from today is June 30th. That’s the deadline for filing Form 114, the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (the “FBAR”). There are no extensions available.
The FBAR is a report. There is no tax to pay. It’s simply a listing of the accounts and maximum balances. However, the penalties for not reporting the FBAR are egregious. Willful non-reporting has a minimum penalty of $100,000 or half the balance in the account, whichever is greater. So file the FBAR.
I’m getting asked lots of questions from non-clients, and I can’t answer them. The best advice I can give is when in doubt, file the FBAR. You can file it yourself using the BSA efile system.
The IRS has a chart showing many of the accounts that are required to be reported on an FBAR. However, the list is not complete. For example, online gambling accounts must be reported (I maintain a list of addresses of those accounts). (Note: Accounts with the legal/regulated sites in Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware are US-based accounts and are not reported.)
One question I will answer: The FBAR must be filed by June 30th; it does not have to be accepted by then. That used to be the case, but FINCEN goes by the time (in your local time zone) when you transmit the return to them. (If you are sending it via tax software, it’s the time of transmittal to the tax software company.)
Next year, the deadline for FBARs will advance to mid-April (hopefully matching the tax deadline), with an extension available for six months. It’s unclear how this will impact expatriates (who have a June tax deadline) or if a separate extension will be required. But that’s an issue where I can honestly say, “Wait ’til next year.”
Tags: FBAR