How does Form 8938 differ from Foreign Bank Account Reporting (FBAR)?

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR or FinCEN Form 114) have a number of very important differences.

The primary difference is that Form 8938, which is part of the FATCA laws, gets filed with your US Federal Tax Return and submitted to the IRS. In addition, the filing threshold is much higher than the FBAR, starting at $200k for US expats, and the deadline will be the same as the deadline for your Federal tax return, including extensions.

The FBAR deadline will be the same as your Federal Tax Return, and you will have the option to file up to a six-month extension – however, it will be filed with the US Treasury Department. FBAR is required if you have as little as $10,000 in all of your combined foreign accounts. There are also a number of differences related to what assets need to be reported. For more information on how the FBAR differs from FATCA, check out our blog: https://www.greenbacktaxservices.com/knowledge-center/fbar-vs-fatca/