FBAR vs Form 8938: The $10,000 Expat Filing Trap

FBAR and Form 8938 are two separate foreign account reports with different agencies, thresholds, and penalties. Here is what triggers each one and which accounts count.

June 2, 2026

US expat reviewing foreign bank account statements at a laptop abroad

Most US expats know they still owe American taxes abroad. Far fewer know they are also required to file two separate foreign account reports — and that skipping either one can trigger penalties that dwarf the account balances themselves. The FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) and Form 8938 (the FATCA reporting form) are distinct requirements, filed with different agencies, at different thresholds, with overlapping but not identical account lists. Getting them confused — or ignoring both — is one of the most expensive mistakes an expat can make.

This guide breaks down exactly what each form covers, where the thresholds sit, which accounts count, and how to get current if you've missed years without triggering the worst penalties.

What Is the FBAR (FinCEN 114)?

The FBAR — officially the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, FinCEN Form 114 — is not a tax form. It is a treasury compliance filing submitted to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the US Department of the Treasury. It does not go to the IRS, and it is not filed with your tax return.

You must file an FBAR for any calendar year in which the aggregate balance of all your foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any point during that year. The $10,000 is not the balance on December 31 — it is the high-water mark across all accounts combined, on any single day.

The FBAR covers more than just accounts you own. It also applies to accounts where you have signature authority — meaning you can control the disposition of assets held in the account, even if you are not the beneficial owner. This catches employees who are signatories on a company's foreign operating account and never thought of themselves as having a "foreign account."

What Is Form 8938 (FATCA Reporting)?

Form 8938, the Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets, is an IRS form attached to your annual tax return (Form 1040 or 1040-SR). It was created under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and covers a broader universe of foreign assets than the FBAR does — including foreign stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments held outside of a financial account.

The thresholds for Form 8938 are significantly higher than FBAR and depend on where you live. As of June 2026, these thresholds remain unchanged since FATCA was enacted in 2011:

Filing Status	Where You Live	Year-End Threshold	Any-Day-During-Year Threshold
Single or MFS	Living abroad	$200,000	$300,000
Married Filing Jointly	Living abroad	$400,000	$600,000
Single or MFS	Living in the US	$50,000	$75,000
Married Filing Jointly	Living in the US	$100,000	$150,000

Data note: Form 8938 thresholds verified against IRS.gov as of June 2026 and have not been adjusted since 2011. FBAR penalty amounts are inflation-adjusted annually.

Most digital nomads and early-stage expats will be below the Form 8938 thresholds while still well above the FBAR threshold. The two forms are not alternatives — they can both be required at the same time for the same accounts.

FBAR vs Form 8938: Key Differences

Side-by-side comparison chart of FBAR and Form 8938 foreign account filing requirements

The two forms overlap in coverage but differ in important ways. Filing one does not exempt you from the other.

Feature	FBAR (FinCEN 114)	Form 8938 (FATCA)
Filed with	FinCEN (Treasury), not IRS	IRS, attached to Form 1040
Threshold (single, abroad)	$10,000 aggregate, any day	$200,000 year-end or $300,000 any day
Deadline	April 15, auto-extended to Oct 15	Same as your tax return deadline
What it covers	Foreign financial accounts	Foreign financial assets (broader)
Signature authority accounts	Yes — required	Generally no
Foreign stocks held directly	Not reportable (no account)	Yes — reportable
Non-willful penalty (2026)	Up to $16,536 per form	$10,000 initial + up to $50,000 more
Willful penalty (2026)	$165,353 or 50% of balance per account	40% accuracy-related penalty
Criminal exposure	Yes — up to $250,000 / 5 years	Indirect (tax evasion charges)

Which Accounts Trigger Each Form

Both forms require you to report foreign bank and brokerage accounts once you pass the relevant threshold. But the edge cases differ significantly.

Accounts the FBAR covers

Bank accounts: Checking, savings, time deposits, and currency accounts at any bank organized under foreign law
Brokerage accounts: Foreign investment accounts holding stocks, bonds, ETFs, futures, and options
Foreign pension and retirement accounts: Most foreign pension and superannuation accounts — including Australian super, UK workplace pensions, and Canadian RRSPs — are FBAR-reportable, which catches many expats off guard
Accounts with signature authority: Even if you do not own the assets, if you can sign on the account, it goes on your FBAR
Life insurance with cash value: Reportable if the policy is held at a foreign insurer and has a cash surrender value
Cryptocurrency: Accounts holding only cryptocurrency are currently NOT required on the FBAR under existing FinCEN guidance (as of June 2026 — rules are proposed but not finalized). A mixed account at a foreign exchange holding both crypto and fiat currency may be reportable if aggregate value exceeds $10,000.

What Form 8938 adds

Form 8938 covers "specified foreign financial assets," which includes everything in the FBAR account list — plus foreign stocks and securities you hold directly (not through an account), interests in foreign entities, and foreign-issued financial contracts. If you own shares of a foreign company held outside a brokerage account, those go on Form 8938 but not the FBAR.

Deadlines and How to File

The FBAR deadline mirrors the federal tax return: April 15 for the prior calendar year, with an automatic extension to October 15 — no request needed. You cannot get a further extension beyond October 15 under any circumstances.

Filing is done entirely online through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System at bsaefiling.fincen.gov. Paper FBARs are no longer accepted. The form itself is straightforward: you list each foreign account, the institution name and country, your maximum value during the year, and the account number.

Form 8938 is attached directly to your Form 1040 and is due on the same date as your tax return — including any extensions you request. If you claim the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion or use the Foreign Tax Credit to reduce your US tax bill, you still owe both foreign account reports regardless of whether any US tax is owed.

Stack of foreign bank statements and IRS tax forms on an office desk

Penalties: Willful, Non-Willful, and Criminal

FBAR penalties are severe relative to the account balances involved. The difference between willful and non-willful violations is not just semantic — the penalty structure diverges sharply.

Non-willful violations

A non-willful violation is one where you genuinely did not know about the filing requirement — not hiding anything, just uninformed. After the US Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Bittner v. United States, non-willful FBAR penalties are now assessed per form per year, not per account. That ruling significantly reduced exposure for expats with multiple small foreign accounts.

The maximum non-willful FBAR penalty as of 2026 (inflation-adjusted) is $16,536 per form per year.

Willful violations

A willful violation means you knew about the filing requirement and chose not to comply — or showed reckless disregard for whether you were required to file. For willful violations, penalties are assessed per account per year and the amounts are significantly larger.

Willful penalty example

Three foreign accounts, each averaging $80,000, over three unfiled years. The per-account, per-year willful penalty (2026) is the greater of $165,353 or 50% of balance ($40,000). So $165,353 applies. Three accounts × three years = up to $1,488,177 in civil penalties — for accounts worth $240,000 combined.

Criminal exposure

Willful failure to file an FBAR is a federal crime. A criminal conviction carries up to $250,000 in fines and up to five years in federal prison. Prosecutions require proof of willfulness beyond reasonable doubt — a high bar — but the IRS Criminal Investigation division does pursue FBAR cases, particularly when large balances are involved.

Form 8938 penalties work differently: a $10,000 initial penalty for failure to file, plus $10,000 per 30-day period after an IRS notice, up to a maximum additional $50,000, plus a 40% accuracy-related penalty on any tax underpayment attributable to undisclosed foreign assets.

If You Have Already Missed Years

The IRS does offer amnesty-style programs for non-willful non-filers. Expats living abroad can use the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures (SFOP) to file three years of returns and six years of FBARs with zero miscellaneous offshore penalty — provided the non-compliance was genuinely non-willful and the IRS has not already contacted them.

For the full breakdown of eligibility requirements, penalty structures, and the certification statement that SFOP requires, see the dedicated guide on expat tax software options for modeling costs and filing mechanics.

7 Mistakes That Get Expats in Trouble

Measuring per account instead of aggregate. The $10,000 trigger is the total across all foreign accounts on any single day. Three $4,000 accounts that are briefly all funded simultaneously trip the threshold.
Forgetting signature authority accounts. If you can sign on a company's foreign operating account, that account may belong on your FBAR even if you own none of the money in it.
Skipping foreign pension accounts. Australian super, UK workplace pensions, and Canadian RRSPs are routinely missed. Most are FBAR-reportable.
Treating FATCA compliance as FBAR compliance. Filing Form 8938 with your tax return does not satisfy the FBAR requirement. Two separate filings, two separate agencies.
Measuring balances only at December 31. If an account hit $12,000 briefly in February before you moved the money, it is still reportable for that year.
Thinking small accounts are exempt. A $300 checking account at a foreign bank still goes on the FBAR if your total across all foreign accounts exceeded $10,000 at any point — every account is reportable once the aggregate threshold is crossed.
Assuming FEIE or FTC eliminates reporting requirements. Using the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion or paying zero US tax via credits does not remove the FBAR or Form 8938 obligation. These reports are required regardless of whether you owe US tax.

State Tax Residency and Foreign Account Reporting

One additional layer: some states follow expats abroad for income tax purposes even after a move. California, New York, and New Jersey are the most aggressive at asserting ongoing residency. If you still owe state income tax, state-specific foreign income reporting requirements may also apply — these are separate from and in addition to the federal FBAR and Form 8938 obligations.

Bottom Line

The FBAR and Form 8938 are two distinct foreign account reporting requirements that can both apply to the same accounts simultaneously. FBAR triggers at a $10,000 aggregate balance on any single day and is filed separately with FinCEN — not the IRS. Form 8938 triggers at $200,000 to $600,000 depending on your filing status and where you live, and attaches directly to your tax return. Missing either one exposes you to penalties that can exceed the account balances themselves.

The most common mistake is not knowing the difference between them — or assuming that because you do not owe US tax, the reporting requirements disappear. They do not. The FEIE and the Foreign Tax Credit reduce or eliminate US tax liability. They do not eliminate foreign account reporting obligations.

Sources checked: IRS.gov FBAR guidance and Form 8938 filing requirements; FinCEN.gov BSA E-Filing System; Bittner v. United States, 598 U.S. 415 (2023); IRS Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures FAQ; inflation-adjusted penalty figures per the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act. All data verified as of June 2026.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or tax advice. FBAR and FATCA reporting rules are complex and fact-specific. Consult a qualified expat tax attorney or CPA before taking action based on your individual situation.