FBAR vs FATCA Form 8938: Which You File in 2026
Two reports, two agencies, two thresholds — the $10,000 FinCEN trigger and the IRS asset tiers, side by side, with what happens when each is missed
The FBAR is filed when the combined value of your foreign financial accounts passes $10,000 at any point in the year. Form 8938 is filed with your tax return when total foreign financial assets pass $200,000 at year end for a single filer living abroad. Many Americans abroad owe the first and never the second.
The two filings were born forty years apart, aimed at different targets. The FBAR dates to the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 and hunts hidden accounts; Form 8938 arrived with FATCA in 2010 and hunts unreported income. Neither statute was written with a schoolteacher in Braga in mind — but both reach her current account.
| FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) | Form 8938 | |
|---|---|---|
| Legal basis | Bank Secrecy Act — 31 U.S.C. §5314 | FATCA — 26 U.S.C. §6038D |
| Filed with | FinCEN, through the BSA E-Filing System | The IRS, attached to the income tax return |
| Trigger | Accounts over $10,000 combined, at any moment in the year | Assets over $50,000 to $600,000, by residence and filing status |
| Due date | 15 April, automatic extension to 15 October | The return’s due date, including extensions |
| Signature authority alone | Reportable | Not reportable |
| Foreign stock held outside an account | Not reportable | Reportable |
| Foreign branch of a US bank | Reportable | Not reportable |
| No tax return due that year | Still required | Not required |
| Baseline civil penalty | $10,000 per report, non-willful, inflation-adjusted | $10,000, plus up to $50,000 more after IRS notice |
Who files the FBAR
Every US person — citizen, green-card holder, tax resident, and US entities too — files FinCEN Form 114 for any calendar year in which their foreign financial accounts together exceeded $10,000, even for a single day. The trigger is the combined high-water mark of all accounts, not the balance of any one of them. Two accounts holding $6,000 each cross the line together.
The regulation behind it, 31 CFR 1010.350, reaches more than bank accounts. Securities accounts, foreign mutual funds, and insurance or annuity policies with cash value all count, and so does an account at the foreign branch of a US bank — a US-brand account in Madrid is a foreign account, while a foreign-brand account in New York is not. Signature authority alone is enough: an account the filer can direct but does not own, such as an employer account, belongs on the report.
Spouses file separately, with one exception: where every reportable account of one spouse is jointly owned with the other, FinCEN Form 114a lets one spouse file for both. The records behind a filed FBAR — statements showing each account’s maximum value — must be kept for five years under 31 CFR 1010.420.
Who files Form 8938
A specified individual files Form 8938 with the annual income tax return once the total value of specified foreign financial assets passes the threshold for their filing status and residence. For an unmarried filer living abroad, that is $200,000 on the last day of the year, or $300,000 at any point during it. A married couple filing jointly from abroad reports at $400,000 and $600,000.
Filers living in the United States reach the form much sooner — $50,000 at year end or $75,000 during the year for a single filer, doubled on a joint return. Living abroad, for this purpose, follows the section 911 tests: a tax home in a foreign country plus bona fide residence or 330 days of presence. Since 2016, certain closely held domestic corporations, partnerships and trusts formed to hold such assets file as well, under regulation 1.6038D-6.
One structural difference does quiet work here: Form 8938 attaches to a tax return. A year with no return requirement — income under the filing floor, for instance — is a year with no Form 8938, whatever the assets are worth. The FBAR has no such anchor. It is due on its own, return or no return.
What each report reaches
The FBAR reaches accounts and only accounts. Form 8938 reaches those same accounts and then keeps going, into investment assets held outside any account. The IRS instructions for the form list, among others:
- Shares or bonds of a foreign issuer held directly, outside any brokerage account
- Interests in foreign partnerships, trusts and estates
- Notes, swaps, options and other instruments with a foreign counterparty
- Foreign hedge funds and private equity funds
- Interests in foreign pension and deferred-compensation plans
Some things escape both. Foreign real estate owned directly is reportable on neither form — though a foreign entity that owns the property is itself a specified asset for Form 8938. Currency and precious metals held directly sit outside both. And the two forms disagree at the edges: signature authority makes an account FBAR-reportable but never 8938-reportable, while the foreign branch of a US bank is FBAR-reportable but is not a foreign financial institution for Form 8938.
Assets already reported on Forms 3520, 5471, 8621 or 8865 need not be listed line by line again; Part IV of Form 8938 records which of those forms carry them. The form itself must still be filed.
Deadlines, and where each filing goes
Both reports come due on 15 April, and neither is filed inside the other. The FBAR goes to FinCEN through the BSA E-Filing System, never to the IRS, and every filer who misses April receives an automatic extension to 15 October — no request, no form. Form 8938 travels with the return itself, so its real deadline is the return’s: 15 June under the automatic two-month extension for taxpayers abroad, or 15 October on a filed extension.
The IRS comparison chart says it plainly: filing one form does not relieve the obligation to file the other. A filer over both thresholds files both, reporting many of the same accounts twice, to two agencies.
Two penalty regimes, separately enforced
A missed FBAR carries a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per unfiled report where the failure is non-willful — a statutory figure under 31 U.S.C. §5321, adjusted annually for inflation under 31 CFR 1010.821. In Bittner v. United States (2023) the Supreme Court held that the non-willful penalty applies per report, not per account: five unreported accounts on one missing FBAR make one violation, not five. A willful failure is another matter entirely — the greater of $100,000, likewise inflation-adjusted, or half the account balance, for each year.
Form 8938 has its own ladder, set out in 26 U.S.C. §6038D: $10,000 for failure to file, and where the failure continues past 90 days after IRS notice, another $10,000 for each 30 days, capped at $50,000 more. Behind the flat amounts sit sharper edges: a 40 percent accuracy-related penalty on any understatement traceable to an undisclosed foreign asset, a statute of limitations that does not start running until the form is filed, and a six-year audit window where more than $5,000 of income from foreign assets is left off a return. Both statutes carry a reasonable-cause exception.
What the rules provide for missed years
Two published paths exist. FinCEN accepts delinquent FBARs through the same e-filing system with a statement explaining the delay, and the IRS states that no penalty applies where the income from the accounts was reported, and the tax paid, on the returns already filed. For non-willful failures that involve unreported income, the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures cover both forms at once: three years of returns, six years of FBARs, and a miscellaneous offshore penalty of zero for filers meeting the non-residency test — the domestic version carries five percent.
Sources
- IRS — Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR requirements — https://www.irs.gov/businesses/comparison-of-form-8938-and-fbar-requirements — checked 2026-09-02
- IRS — Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) — https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/report-of-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts-fbar — checked 2026-09-02
- IRS — Instructions for Form 8938 — https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8938.pdf — checked 2026-09-02
- IRS — Do I need to file Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets? — https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/do-i-need-to-file-form-8938-statement-of-specified-foreign-financial-assets — checked 2026-09-02
- IRS — Summary of FATCA reporting for U.S. taxpayers — https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/summary-of-fatca-reporting-for-us-taxpayers — checked 2026-09-02
- FinCEN — Report Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (BSA E-Filing) — https://www.fincen.gov/report-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts — checked 2026-09-02
- US Code — 31 U.S.C. §5321, civil penalties for FBAR violations — https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title31-section5321&num=0&edition=prelim — checked 2026-09-02
- US Code — 26 U.S.C. §6038D, information with respect to foreign financial assets — https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title26-section6038D&num=0&edition=prelim — checked 2026-09-02
- eCFR — 31 CFR 1010.350, reports of foreign financial accounts — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-31/subtitle-B/chapter-X/part-1010/subpart-C/section-1010.350 — checked 2026-09-02
- eCFR — 31 CFR 1010.821, penalty adjustment and table — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-31/subtitle-B/chapter-X/part-1010/subpart-H/section-1010.821 — checked 2026-09-02
- eCFR — 26 CFR 1.6038D-2, requirement to report specified foreign financial assets — https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/chapter-I/subchapter-A/part-1/section-1.6038D-2 — checked 2026-09-02
- Supreme Court of the United States — Bittner v. United States, 598 U.S. 85 (2023) — https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/21-1195_h3ci.pdf — checked 2026-09-02
Common questions
- Does filing the FBAR count as reporting my foreign accounts to the IRS?
- No. The FBAR goes to FinCEN through the BSA E-Filing System and never touches the tax return; Form 8938 goes to the IRS attached to the return. The IRS comparison chart states that filing one does not relieve the obligation to file the other, so a filer over both thresholds submits both, listing many of the same accounts twice.
- Do I have to file an FBAR if no single account ever held $10,000?
- Yes, if the accounts together did. The $10,000 trigger applies to the combined maximum value of every foreign financial account across the calendar year, not to any one account. Two accounts holding $6,000 each cross the line together, and a balance that stayed above $10,000 for a single day is enough.
- I live abroad and my accounts are under $200,000 — do I file both forms?
- Usually the FBAR alone. Accounts past the $10,000 combined trigger put FinCEN Form 114 in play, but a single filer living abroad reaches Form 8938 only at $200,000 in total assets on the last day of the year, or $300,000 at any point during it. The same balances held while living in the United States meet the far lower $50,000 and $75,000 tiers.
- Do I still file the FBAR in a year I owe no US tax and file no return?
- Yes. The FBAR stands on its own: it is due whenever the account threshold is crossed, whether or not any tax return is required that year. Form 8938 works the other way — it attaches to the return, so a year with no return requirement is a year with no Form 8938, whatever the assets are worth.
- What happens if I file Form 8938 but skip the FBAR?
- The FBAR obligation survives untouched, with its own penalty regime. A non-willful failure carries a statutory penalty of up to $10,000 per unfiled report, adjusted annually for inflation, under 31 U.S.C. §5321. The two filings are enforced by different arms of the Treasury, and completing one has no effect on the other.
- Do my spouse and I each have to file our own FBAR for joint accounts?
- Not always. Where every reportable account of one spouse is jointly owned with the other, FinCEN Form 114a lets one spouse file a single FBAR covering both. If either spouse holds any separate foreign account, each files their own. On a joint tax return, one Form 8938 covers the couple, with the higher joint thresholds applying.
- Does signature authority over my employer’s account mean I file anything?
- It means an FBAR, not a Form 8938. Signature authority over a foreign account — the power to direct it without owning it — makes the account reportable on FinCEN Form 114 once the combined threshold is crossed. Form 8938 reaches only assets in which the filer holds an interest, so authority alone never puts an account on it.
- Is foreign real estate reported on the FBAR or Form 8938?
- On neither, when it is owned directly — a flat in Lisbon held in the owner’s own name appears on no US information report. Held through a foreign company, partnership or trust, the picture changes: the entity interest itself is a specified foreign financial asset for Form 8938, valued with the property inside it. The FBAR reaches only financial accounts either way.
- Is a foreign pension reported on the FBAR or Form 8938?
- An interest in a foreign pension or deferred-compensation plan is a specified foreign financial asset, so it belongs on Form 8938 once the thresholds are met. The FBAR reaches it only where the arrangement takes the form of a foreign financial account in which the filer holds a financial interest, under the definitions in 31 CFR 1010.350.
- When is the FBAR due, and do I have to ask for the extension?
- The FBAR is due 15 April for the prior calendar year, and no. FinCEN grants every filer an automatic extension to 15 October — there is no request to make and no form to send. Form 8938 follows the tax return instead: 15 June under the automatic extension for taxpayers abroad, or 15 October where an extension was filed.
- What is the penalty if I missed the FBAR without knowing it existed?
- The non-willful civil penalty is up to $10,000 per unfiled report, a statutory amount adjusted annually for inflation, and after Bittner v. United States it applies per report rather than per account. The statute carries a reasonable-cause exception, and FinCEN accepts delinquent FBARs with an explanatory statement — with no penalty where the account income was already reported and taxed.
A note on tax content
Tax content on this site is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. Rules for U.S. citizens abroad depend on individual circumstances, country of residence, income sources, account structures, and applicable treaties — always consult a qualified tax professional in the relevant jurisdiction before making decisions.
The information provided by US Expat is for educational and informational purposes only. It should not be treated as personalized tax, legal, immigration, investment, insurance, or financial advice. U.S. citizens abroad should consult qualified professionals who understand their specific facts and circumstances. US Expat is not a law firm, tax filing firm, or immigration law firm.
Rules and thresholds for U.S. citizens abroad change. Pages are reviewed periodically; confirm current details with a qualified professional before acting.
