Technical topics regarding tax preparation.
foreign bank accounts....
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12-Oct-2019 9:15pm

one spouse has 2 foreign bank accounts under 10k in total

husband has foreign bank account 20k in it during 2018

do both have to file? or just the husband?

13-Oct-2019 9:29am

A United States person, including a citizen, resident, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, trust and estate, must file an FBAR to report:

a financial interest in or signature or other authority over at least one financial account located outside the United States if
the aggregate value of those foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year reported.


You don’t need to file an FBAR for the calendar year if:

All your foreign financial accounts are reported on a consolidated FBAR.
All your foreign financial accounts are jointly-owned with your spouse and:
You completed and signed FinCEN Form 114a authorizing your spouse to file on your behalf, and your spouse reports the jointly-owned accounts on a timely-filed, signed FBAR.
Note: Income tax filing status, such as married-filing-jointly and married-filing-separately has no effect on your qualification for this exception.


If the accounts are not jointly owned just the husband files the FBAR.

13-Oct-2019 11:00am

In the past several years I have written to my Congressman a few times strongly suggesting that the $10,000 threshold which has never been adjusted for inflation should be increased to $50,000. The tax evaders using off shore accounts are not those with foreign accounts of amounts lesser than $50,000. These filings for low amounts are a waste of money for the government to even track, as well as being a major pain for taxpayers. Of course all taxpayers need to report the income from even small holdings. Unfortunately expecting anything so rational to even being considered by Congress is a pipe dream.

13-Oct-2019 11:22am

great idea Jake...agree....thank you Howard S...schedule B might be awkward with the questions....qustions 7a for him would be YES AND for wife would be NO.......any htoughts how to handle that?.....he has to file but she doesn't. the accounts are separately owned...

13-Oct-2019 11:40am

If MFJ, yes and yes.

13-Oct-2019 7:56pm

Agree with Howard. If no joint ownership is involved, only the husband has an FBAR obligation based on the facts in the OP.

14-Oct-2019 2:33am

FBARs report numerous kinds of accounts that are not bank accounts. Hopefully this question has this been asked of the clients.

22-Oct-2019 2:27pm

Agreed that if not jointly owned just the husband has to file. However, do the balances fluctuate? Did either of the accounts owned by the spouse pass the $10,000 threshold during the year? Very often a client will just give you the year end balances of the accounts.

Since these are just information returns giving information that the US government has access to in any case, and there is no taxable event involved, why not just err. on the side of caution and file all the accounts?
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