FBAR filing requirements: the $10,000 test, the deadline and penalties after Bittner

If you live in the US and keep a bank account in the country you came from, or park savings abroad before sending them to family, you may owe the Treasury a yearly report on it. The FBAR, short for Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts and filed as FinCEN Form 114, carries no tax, yet the penalties for skipping it can exceed the money in the accounts. This guide covers who files, how the $10,000 test works, how to file and what changed after the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Bittner v. United States. For moving the money itself, see the money transfer hub.

Who has to file an FBAR?

Any US person with a financial interest in, or signature authority over, foreign financial accounts whose combined maximum values topped $10,000 during the calendar year.

The trigger: More than $10,000 in total across foreign financial accounts at any time in the year (IRS, as of Nov 1, 2026). A US person means a citizen or resident, including a green-card holder and anyone treated as a resident under the tax code's tests, plus corporations, partnerships, LLCs, trusts and estates formed in the US. A tax treaty doesn't change this: a green-card holder who is taxed as a resident of another country under a treaty still files. Whether the accounts earned anything is irrelevant.

You have a financial interest if you're the owner of record, even when the account is kept for someone else's benefit; if someone holds the account as your agent or nominee; or if you own more than half of a company, partnership or certain trusts that hold it. Signature authority means you can control the money by instructing the bank, alone or together with someone else, whether or not you ever use the power. A power of attorney over an elderly parent's account in Canada counts even if it has never been exercised.

Several groups are excused. Owners and beneficiaries of US IRAs and participants in tax-qualified retirement plans don't report accounts the plan holds; trust beneficiaries don't report the trust's accounts when a US trust or trustee files for them; and a spouse whose reportable accounts are all held jointly with a filing spouse can skip a separate report if both sign Form 114a. Accounts at a US military banking facility abroad aren't foreign. Nonresident aliens don't file at all, even if they invest heavily in the US; the rules that do apply to them are in the invest-from-abroad hub.

How does the $10,000 aggregate test work?

Find each account's highest value during the year, convert each to dollars at the Treasury's year-end rate, and add them; above $10,000, you file and list every account.

The maximum value is a reasonable approximation of the greatest amount in the account at any point in the year, and statements issued at least quarterly can be used if they fairly reflect it. Value each account separately, in its own currency, then convert using the Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange for the last day of the year. If Treasury has no rate for a currency, use another verifiable rate and name its source. Round fractions up to the next whole dollar, and record a negative balance, such as an overdrawn account, as zero.

Peaks don't have to coincide. Three accounts that each peaked in a different month are added as if they had peaked together, which is how people with modest balances end up owing a report.

For 2026 accounts, use Treasury's December 31, 2026 rates once they're published. During the year, our dollar to rupee converter shows the live mid-market rate, a handy way to watch how close balances are getting to the line, though the report itself uses Treasury's year-end figure.

Which accounts count toward the FBAR?

Bank, brokerage, mutual fund and cash-value insurance accounts abroad count; foreign property, cash you hold yourself and accounts at US branches of foreign banks don't.

What makes an account foreign is where it's kept, not who owns the bank: an account at a US bank's branch in Germany is foreign, while one at a French bank's branch in Texas isn't. Foreign retirement accounts are included, and IRS guidance names Canadian RRSPs and TFSAs and Mexican retirement accounts such as AFORE accounts as reportable. Foreign hedge funds and private equity funds are not reportable at present.

Cryptocurrency is the moving part. A foreign account that holds only virtual currency isn't reportable under current FinCEN rules, although an account that also holds other reportable assets can be. FinCEN said in Notice 2020-2 that it intends to propose adding virtual currency to the rules, so check its FBAR guidance before you file; our guide to sending money with stablecoins covers the transfer side.

Accounts families often keep abroad, such as NRE and NRO accounts in India or Roshan Digital Accounts in Pakistan, are discussed in our guides to sending money to India and Pakistan.

How do you file FinCEN Form 114?

Online, through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System, where individuals can file without registering an account; the FBAR is never attached to your tax return.

1. List every foreign account

   For each one, note the name on the account, the account number, the institution's name and address, the type of account and its maximum value for the year. These are also the records you must keep for five years from the April 15 due date.

2. Value and convert each account

   Take the highest balance in the account's own currency, convert it at the Treasury's December 31 rate and round up to the next dollar.

3. Open the form in the BSA E-Filing System

   Individuals can file FinCEN Form 114 directly without registering. A preparer such as an accountant or attorney registers with the system and files on your behalf, keeping your signed FinCEN Form 114a authorization in their records rather than submitting it.

4. Complete the parts that apply

   Enter your own details, then each account in the section that fits it: accounts you own alone, accounts you own jointly, accounts you can sign on but don't own, or a company's consolidated report. With a financial interest in 25 or more accounts, you can give just the number of accounts and keep the details ready in case you're asked for them.

5. Submit and save the acknowledgment

   File by the deadline, keep the confirmation the system sends, and answer the foreign-account questions on Schedule B of Form 1040 when you file your tax return.

Each US owner of a joint account reports the account's full value, not a share of it. The only shortcut is the spousal exception described above.

When is the FBAR due?

April 15 after the calendar year being reported, with an automatic extension to October 15 that you don't have to request.

So accounts held during 2026 are reported by April 15, 2027, or by October 15, 2027 at the latest without giving any reason. The FBAR always follows the calendar year, and the deadline is about when the Treasury receives it, so file online in good time. After a federally declared disaster, FinCEN sometimes extends the deadline for people in the affected area, and it has repeatedly pushed back the deadline for certain employees of financial firms who have signature authority over their employer's accounts but no financial interest in them, most recently to April 15, 2027.

If you're missing information at the deadline, the IRS's guidance is to file as complete a report as you can and amend it once you have the rest. A report filed after October 15 asks you to pick a reason for lateness from a list or explain it in a short text box.

What are the FBAR penalties after Bittner?

A non-willful violation can cost up to $16,536 per violation (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR), as of Nov 2, 2026), and since the Supreme Court's 2023 Bittner ruling, that counts per report, not per account.

Alexandru Bittner, a dual US and Romanian citizen, filed late FBARs for 2007 through 2011 covering 272 accounts. The government counted each account as a separate violation and sought $2.72 million at $10,000 apiece. On February 28, 2023, the Court held that the non-willful penalty applies to each report, which cut his maximum to $50,000 for the five reports.

Willful violations are on a different scale: the greater of $165,353 or 50% of the account balance at the time of the violation, per violation, plus possible criminal penalties of up to $250,000 or five years in prison for willfully failing to file.

These are ceilings, not automatic amounts, and there's no minimum. The statute bars a non-willful penalty when the violation was due to reasonable cause and the account balance was properly reported, and the IRS says no penalty will be imposed on a properly filed late FBAR if it finds reasonable cause. The ceilings are normally adjusted for inflation each January; the figures above have applied to penalties assessed since January 17, 2025, because federal agencies were told in April 2026 to skip the 2026 adjustment.

What if you missed FBARs in earlier years?

If the IRS hasn't contacted you and you aren't under investigation, file the missing reports as soon as possible and explain the lateness when you file.

The rules for catching up changed in 2026. Until July 1, 2026, the IRS published Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures saying it wouldn't penalize late FBARs filed by people who had reported and paid tax on the income from those accounts and hadn't been contacted about an examination. The IRS removed that page without an announcement, and its FBAR page now says late filing is a violation that may bring penalties and that you should file late FBARs as soon as possible to keep potential penalties to a minimum. EY's analysis found no indication that the IRS plans to penalize every late FBAR automatically, but the written assurance is gone.

If you also left income from those accounts off your tax returns, the late FBAR is only half the problem. The IRS's Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures are for people whose failures were non-willful, and its Criminal Investigation Voluntary Disclosure Practice is for those whose conduct may have been willful. Which route fits, and what it costs, depends on facts a tax professional should review before you file anything.

Do you need Form 8938 as well as an FBAR?

Often yes: Form 8938 is a separate IRS form with higher thresholds, filed with your tax return, and filing one never satisfies the other.

Form 8938 covers some assets the FBAR doesn't, such as foreign shares held directly, and skips some it includes, such as accounts you can only sign on. Large gifts or inheritances from abroad are a third, separate filing, covered in our Form 3520 guide. Money that lands in your US account from abroad doesn't create an FBAR duty by itself, since only accounts held abroad count; receiving money from abroad covers that side. Sending money from the US to family raises other questions again: the remittance transfer tax on cash-funded transfers, your rights under the Remittance Rule and gift tax on money sent abroad.

FBAR rules and penalty amounts change, and FinCEN's position on crypto may too. For accounts you share with family abroad, foreign retirement or insurance products, or past years you missed, a tax professional can confirm what to report before you file.