Foreign Bank Account Reporting
(FBAR)

Federal law requires U.S. taxpayers (both citizens and permanent residents) to annually file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, FinCen Form 114, commonly referred to as an FBAR, if they own or are signatories to foreign financial accounts with a collective total value exceeding $10,000. Federal law also provides for severe penalties for failure to file an FBAR. These range from civil penalties of $10,000 for non-willful failure to file, to criminal penalties of $500,000 and up to ten years in prison for willful violations.

Frequently taxpayers are simply unaware of these obligations under Federal law. For example, they may have inherited foreign accounts with which they haven't had much interaction, or perhaps they were jointly listed on an account with a foreign national. Even in such situations, if the taxpayers did not file an FBAR, and the collective total of the accounts was greater than $10,000, they are in violation of Federal law.