The FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, FinCEN Form 114) is a yearly report to FinCEN, part of the US Treasury. It is separate from your federal income tax return. Here is who files, what counts, when it is due and how it is filed.
Reviewed 22 October 2026 for reporting year 2025. An overview of the official rules for individuals, not a decision about your own case.
Generally, an account at a financial institution located outside the United States is a foreign financial account.
The definition includes, but is not limited to:
An account at a branch of a US bank that is physically outside the United States is a foreign financial account.
An account at a branch of a foreign bank that is physically in the United States is not.
Signature authority means you can, alone or with someone else, control the assets in the account by instructing the bank or institution directly, in writing or otherwise.
Whether an account earned taxable income has no effect on whether it counts.
The FBAR is an annual report, due April 15 following the calendar year reported. A filer who misses April 15 gets an automatic extension to October 15, with no request needed.
| Who | Due date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Most individuals | April 15, 2026 (passed) | FinCEN notice FIN-2025-NTC3 says the date remains April 15, 2026 for everyone outside the group in the last row. |
| Anyone who missed April 15 | October 15, 2026 (passed) | Automatic extension. No request is needed. |
| Certain people with signature authority only | April 15, 2027 | Narrow relief in FIN-2025-NTC3 for certain US individuals with signature authority over, but no financial interest in, foreign accounts. It does not move the date for anyone with a financial interest. Check the notice to see whether you are in the group. |
Both 2026 dates for reporting year 2025 have passed. If you missed them, see the streamlined procedures page.
When April 15 falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, filing on the next day that is not one of those is timely. April 15, 2026 was a Wednesday and October 15, 2026 is a Thursday, so neither date shifts. If you are affected by a natural disaster, the government may extend the date further; FinCEN's filing information page lists those notices.
The FBAR is filed electronically through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System. It is not attached to or sent with your federal tax return.
For each account, a reasonable approximation of its greatest value during the year. Periodic statements can be relied on if they fairly reflect the maximum. Each account is valued separately.
Use the Treasury reporting rate of exchange for the last day of the year. If none is available, another verifiable rate may be used, with its source given.
Record amounts in dollars rounded up to the next whole dollar: $15,265.25 becomes $15,266. A negative value is entered as zero.
An individual filing their own FBAR needs no account. Attorneys, CPAs and enrolled agents filing for clients register as BSA E-Filers. Paper filing needs an exemption requested from FinCEN's Resource Center.
When you ask us to, we e-file your FBAR with FinCEN through the BSA E-Filing System for $59 per person. It is prepared separately, not in the plan price, and you pay before the FBAR file is produced. Your tax return preparation does not itself file FinCEN Form 114.
From the accounts you enter, the software applies the $10,000 combined test for each spouse. It counts a joint account in full for each spouse and counts accounts you only sign on. Bank, securities or brokerage, and cash-value insurance accounts are reported; partnership interests are not financial accounts and are left out.
The accounts you enter in the foreign accounts section are the same list used for Form 8938 and the Schedule B foreign account question. The list is reused; the FBAR is never filed together with the return.
When you ask us to file it, the software prepares the FBAR for filing through BSA E-Filing, one per required spouse, with a Form 114a you sign by typing your name, and our team uploads it for you. The price is $59 per person.
If another return in your account already released an FBAR for the same person and year, the second one is not released until FinCEN's answer to the first is recorded. A correction of an accepted report is filed as an amendment naming its BSA ID.
If you choose to file yourself, it tells you which FBARs are due, where to file, and lists your accounts with their highest balances.
A spouse need not file a separate FBAR if every account that spouse must report is jointly owned with the filing spouse, the filing spouse reports them on a timely, electronically signed FBAR, and both have completed and signed Form 114a. Otherwise each spouse files separately and each reports the entire value of the joint accounts. Your tax filing status, such as married filing jointly, does not decide this.
Form 114a is the Record of Authorization to Electronically File FBARs. It lets someone else file for you, or lets spouses choose which spouse signs a single joint report. It is not submitted with the FBAR: you keep it and give it to FinCEN or the IRS if they ask.
If you have fewer than 25 accounts and cannot tell whether their combined value passed $10,000, the FinCEN instructions say to complete the account sections and check "amount unknown".
No. The two are separate, with different thresholds, different assets and different places to file. Filing one does not replace the other.
Yes, when you ask us to. We e-file it with FinCEN through the BSA E-Filing System for $59 per person, with a Form 114a you sign by typing your name. It is prepared separately, not in the plan price. If you prefer to file it yourself, the software tells you which FBARs are due and lists your accounts with their highest balances.
Start with our page on the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures, which describes the IRS program for people behind on their filings.
The IRS says the assertion of penalties depends on facts and circumstances. It says the civil penalty maximums are adjusted annually for inflation, and it points to Publication 5569 for criminal penalties. We do not quote a figure here; see the IRS FBAR page in the sources below.
Browse the forms and situations the software supports, and what it leaves out, before you decide how to file.
See supported forms