FBAR stands for Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. It is a filing requirement for certain U.S. persons that meet two specific criterions. The first one is that they have an interest or authority over a foreign account/(s). The second one is that the account/(s) have an aggregate value of more than $10,000. There is a fairly long list of exceptions that applies to certain situations where FBAR filing is unnecessary. Some of the most common ones include accounts:
- Owned by governments;
- Owned by a U.S. military facility;
- Held in retirement plans;
- Held as a part of a trust where the taxpayer is the beneficiary.
In addition, FBAR and all related tax evasion penalties do not apply to you if your spouse already filed. The reason why is that the FBAR filing rules for married couples oblige them to put everything on one form... [read more]