FBAR: foreign bank accounts

The FBAR is not a tax return. It is a report on foreign bank and financial accounts, filed with FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau of the US Treasury, under the Bank Secrecy Act. It is not filed with the IRS, it is not attached to a tax return, and it is not a tax. It is a separate filing with its own rules, its own due date, and its own penalties. This page explains it in full, because owners who file their tax returns correctly still miss the FBAR.

What the FBAR is

The FBAR is FinCEN Form 114, the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. It is an information report under the Bank Secrecy Act, 31 USC 5314. It reports foreign financial accounts, and it goes to FinCEN electronically through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System. It does not go to the IRS. The distinction matters: a filing sent to the IRS is not an FBAR, and an FBAR is not part of a tax return.

The purpose of the report is transparency about foreign accounts, not taxation. The FBAR does not compute tax, and no tax is due with it. That is why it is easy to overlook: an owner who thinks in terms of tax returns, and who has no tax to pay, can assume there is nothing to file. The FBAR is filed whether or not any tax is owed, and whether or not the accounts earned any income.

Who must file

Any US person with a financial interest in or signature authority over foreign financial accounts must file, if the aggregate value of all such accounts exceeded $10,000 at any point during the calendar year. A US person includes a US citizen, a resident, and an entity, including a US LLC. The threshold is aggregate and it is a peak: the total across all foreign accounts, at the highest point in the year, not the year-end balance and not the balance of any single account.

The arithmetic is what catches people. Two accounts with $6,000 each are $12,000 in aggregate, and that exceeds the threshold, even though neither account alone reaches $10,000. An account that held $11,000 for one week in March and $2,000 for the rest of the year still exceeds the threshold, because the test is the highest point in the year. The test is the aggregate peak, and it is judged on the year as a whole.

The LLC and the owner file separately

The LLC files an FBAR for its own foreign accounts. The owner files personally for their own foreign accounts only if the owner is independently a US person for FBAR purposes: a US citizen, a green card holder, or a person who meets the substantial presence test. A foreign owner who is not a US person has no personal FBAR duty from owning the LLC. The two filings are separate, and one does not cover the other. An LLC with a foreign bank account files an FBAR for that account, and its owner, if the owner is a US person and also has foreign accounts of their own, files a personal FBAR as well.

Signature authority counts as well as ownership. An owner who can sign on a foreign account, even without owning the funds in it, has signature authority over that account, and the account counts toward the threshold. That is a wider net than ownership alone, and it is the reason the filing is easy to miss for owners who hold accounts for a business or a family member.

Where it goes and when it is due

The FBAR is filed electronically through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System. It is not filed with the IRS, not attached to a tax return, and not sent by fax or mail to the IRS address used for Form 5472. The filing system is FinCEN's, and the report goes to FinCEN.

The FBAR is due April 15, with an automatic extension to October 15. No extension form is needed: the extension is automatic. Tax year 2026 FBAR is due April 15, 2027, and is automatically extended to October 15, 2027. Do not file a Form 7004 or a Form 4868 for an FBAR. There is nothing to extend, because the extension is already granted.

Penalties

The penalties for a missed FBAR are substantial, and they depend on whether the failure was willful. A non-willful failure carries a penalty of up to $10,000 per violation by statute, inflation-adjusted to about $16,536 per report (2026 figure). Per the Supreme Court in Bittner v. United States (2023), non-willful penalties accrue per report, not per account: one missed report is one penalty, however many accounts it should have listed.

A willful failure carries a penalty of up to the greater of about $165,353 or 50 percent of the account balance, per account per year, plus criminal exposure of up to $250,000 and 5 years. Willful means more than knowing of the duty and choosing not to file. It also covers reckless disregard of the duty and willful blindness, a deliberate effort to avoid learning about it. The gap between the non-willful and the willful penalty is the reason a missed FBAR should be fixed promptly and openly, with a tax professional, rather than left to be discovered.

FBAR versus FATCA Form 8938

Form 8938, the Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets, is a different filing, and it is the one that causes the confusion. Form 8938 is filed with the tax return, at higher thresholds than the FBAR, and it goes to the IRS. The FBAR is filed with FinCEN, at the $10,000 aggregate threshold, and it does not go to the IRS. The two filings can both be owed for the same accounts, and filing one does not satisfy the other. If you file a Form 8938 with your return, check whether an FBAR is also owed.

Common mistakes

The first mistake is treating the $10,000 threshold as per account. It is aggregate, across all foreign accounts. The second is treating it as a year-end test. It is a peak test, at any point in the year. The third is thinking the FBAR is filed with the tax return. It is filed with FinCEN, through the BSA E-Filing System, and a tax return with no FBAR attached is not an FBAR filing.

The fourth mistake is missing the FBAR because the LLC had no income. The FBAR is not a tax, and it is owed whether or not the accounts earned income. The fifth is assuming that an account with signature authority only does not count. It does. The sixth is filing late and assuming the automatic extension covers it: the extension runs to October 15, and after that the filing is late.

What to do next

List the foreign accounts the LLC holds and test them against the $10,000 aggregate peak for the LLC's own FBAR. Separately, if you are a US person for FBAR purposes, list the foreign accounts you hold personally and test them against the $10,000 aggregate peak for your own FBAR. Do not add the two lists together. Then write to us about the filing you need. The portal prepares FBARs as well as tax returns. The order flow is coming. An FBAR costs $99 regular or $149 express; filed together with Form 5472, both cost $149 regular or $199 express. No extension is needed: the FBAR extends automatically to October 15.

Last reviewed: November 2026. Sources: FinCEN, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts