These are reporting forms, not tax. You can owe nothing and still face a penalty in the tens of thousands for not filing them.
Two separate reporting regimes apply to US persons with assets outside the United States. They overlap, they have different thresholds, and they go to different places. Most people who need one need both.
Neither is a tax. Both carry serious penalties.
Who files: US persons — citizens, residents, and US corporations, partnerships, LLCs, trusts and estates.
The threshold: the aggregate value of your foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year, and you had a financial interest in, or signature or other authority over, at least one of them.
Two words do the damage there.
Aggregate. Not $10,000 in one account — $10,000 across all of them combined. Four accounts holding $3,000 each trips it.
At any time. Not the year-end balance. If a property sale or a bonus pushed a balance over $10,000 for a single afternoon, the year is reportable.
Signature authority also counts. If you can sign on your employer's foreign account, or a relative's, you may have a reporting obligation on money that is not yours.
Deadline: 15 April, with an automatic extension to 15 October. You do not request the extension.
Where: electronically through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System. It is not filed with your tax return and does not go to the IRS.
Penalties, as adjusted for penalties assessed on or after 17 January 2025:
These are per violation, and the willful penalty has a statutory alternative measured against the account balance. FinCEN adjusts the figures annually.
Exemptions include IRAs and certain retirement plans.
Who files: specified persons holding specified foreign financial assets above the threshold for their filing status and residence.
| Filer | Living in the US (year-end / any time) | Living abroad (year-end / any time) |
|---|---|---|
| Unmarried | $50,000 / $75,000 | $200,000 / $300,000 |
| Married filing jointly | $100,000 / $150,000 | $400,000 / $600,000 |
| Married filing separately | $50,000 / $75,000 | $200,000 / $300,000 |
Note how much higher the thresholds are for those living abroad. That is deliberate — the regime is aimed at US-resident taxpayers hiding assets offshore, not at ordinary expatriate banking.
Where: filed with your income tax return.
Penalty: $10,000 for failure to file, plus $10,000 for each 30-day period after a 90-day notice period, capped at $50,000.
They are not the same form with two names.
FBAR covers financial accounts. Bank accounts, brokerage accounts, certain insurance and annuity products with cash value.
Form 8938 covers specified foreign financial assets held for investment — which includes accounts, but also things that are not accounts at all: directly held foreign stock or securities, interests in foreign entities, and foreign-issued financial instruments. None of those appear on an FBAR.
The definitions of "financial account" also differ between the two, so an asset can be reportable on one and not the other.
Both may be required for the same account. Filing one does not satisfy the other.
A US citizen living abroad with a local current account, a local savings account and a workplace pension will very often:
That is the common case. The reverse — 8938 without FBAR — is rare.
This is common and it is fixable, but the route matters. There are procedures for delinquent international information returns and for taxpayers whose failure to file was non-willful.
Do not simply start filing late forms. How you enter the process materially affects your penalty exposure. Get advice from someone who handles offshore disclosure before you file anything.