Form 8938 Threshold If You Live Abroad

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If your tax home is in a foreign country and you meet the presence test in the Form 8938 instructions, you file that form when your specified foreign financial assets are worth more than $200,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $300,000 at any time during the year. A joint return uses more than $400,000 and more than $600,000. Miss the qualification test and an unmarried filer drops to more than $50,000 on the last day or more than $75,000 at any time, and a missing form can start at a $10,000 penalty.

As of October 2026, those dollar lines are still the ones in the Instructions for Form 8938 (revised November 2021 and kept as a continuous-use form) and on the IRS page Do I need to file Form 8938, reviewed 20 September 2026. Form 8938, the Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets, is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act report you attach to the return. It does not replace the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts.

What is the Form 8938 threshold if you live abroad?

The higher lines apply only when your tax home is in a foreign country and you meet a presence test. The instructions then split the dollars by filing status. "More than" is the IRS wording, so a total that equals the printed figure has not crossed that line. In the instructions' Example 2, an unmarried person in the United States whose specified foreign financial assets never exceed $49,000 does not file, because that test is more than $50,000 on the last day or more than $75,000 at any time.

Who is testing the total	Last day of the tax year	Any time during the tax year
Tax home abroad, not married	More than $200,000	More than $300,000
Tax home abroad, married filing jointly	More than $400,000	More than $600,000
Tax home abroad, married filing separately	More than $200,000	More than $300,000
Not abroad under those tests, not married, or married filing separately	More than $50,000	More than $75,000
Not abroad under those tests, married filing jointly	More than $100,000	More than $150,000
Specified domestic entity	More than $50,000	More than $75,000

Data note: dollar lines were checked in October 2026 against the Form 8938 instructions and the IRS filing page reviewed 20 September 2026. Those pages still show these fixed amounts.

Who qualifies for the higher Form 8938 threshold?

A lease or a visa does not, by itself, unlock the $200,000 line. The instructions still require a foreign tax home, which is the test in tax home versus abode, and a presence test on top of that.

The two presence tests

The first test is for a U.S. citizen who has been a bona fide resident of a foreign country or countries for an uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year. A resident alien is not on that bullet. The second test is for a U.S. citizen or resident who is physically present in a foreign country or countries for at least 330 full days during any period of 12 consecutive months that ends in the tax year being reported. Either presence test can work. Both still require the foreign tax home.

When a U.S. company stays on the lower line

A specified domestic entity does not inherit your living-abroad threshold. It files at more than $50,000 on the last day or more than $75,000 at any time. Closely held means a specified individual owns at least 80 percent of a domestic corporation's voting power or value, or 80 percent of a domestic partnership's capital or profits, on the last day of that entity's year. The entity also needs at least 50 percent passive income or at least 50 percent passive assets. You include other-form assets in your own threshold test. The entity leaves those Part IV assets out of its $50,000 and $75,000 test.

What counts toward the Form 8938 threshold?

Count a financial account at a foreign financial institution, including a foreign bank or foreign brokerage account. Also count, when held for investment and not inside a financial account, stock or securities issued by someone who is not a U.S. person, an interest in a foreign entity, and a financial contract with a foreign issuer or counterparty. The IRS questions and answers on Form 8938, reviewed 17 August 2026, draw the lines that change the total.

• Currency you hold yourself is not counted. The same dollars on deposit at a foreign bank are.
• A house or rental in your own name is not reported. If a foreign corporation, partnership, trust, or estate holds it, you report the interest in that entity once you are over the threshold, not the building as its own line. The property's value is part of valuing the entity interest.
• Art, jewelry, cars, collectibles, and directly held precious metals, including gold, are not counted. A gold certificate issued by a foreign person can be. So can a contract with a foreign person to sell assets you held for investment, if you are over the threshold.
• A safe deposit box is not a financial account.
• A foreign pension or deferred-compensation plan counts once you are over the threshold. A foreign social-insurance benefit equivalent to Social Security does not. Revenue Procedure 2020-17 may drop some of those trusts from Forms 3520 and 3520-A, and the instructions say that relief does not turn off Form 8938.
• A brokerage account at a U.S. institution, such as Charles Schwab, is not reported, and neither are foreign shares inside it. The same is true of a U.S. mutual fund, a traditional or Roth IRA, a 401(k), and a qualified U.S. retirement plan. Keeping a Fidelity account after you move does not make that U.S. account foreign for this form.
• An account at a U.S. branch or U.S. affiliate of a foreign bank is not reported. An account at a foreign branch or foreign affiliate of a U.S. institution is not reported on Form 8938 either. A foreign account is still reported when the securities inside it were issued by a U.S. company. Report the account, not each holding inside it.

You have an interest if the income, gain, proceeds, or distributions would belong on your return, including a year with no payout. Partner or shareholder status alone does not make you the owner of what sits inside the entity. You do count assets a disregarded entity owns, assets in the portion of a grantor trust you are treated as owning, and a child's specified foreign financial assets if you report that child on Form 8814.

Use fair market value. Convert foreign currency at the U.S. Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service rate for purchasing U.S. dollars on the last day of the tax year, even after a sale. The tables are on the Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange page, last updated 19 March 2026. If no Treasury rate exists, disclose another public rate for purchasing dollars. An annual account statement's own rate is also allowed. No appraiser is required, and periodic statements work unless you know they miss the peak. In Example 15, foreign stock held outside an account is worth $100,000 on the last day and $150,000 at the 52-week high, so the maximum to report, if you file, is $150,000. An unknown pension value is the year's distributions, or zero if there were none.

How do you test a year that peaks and then drops?

Say you are unmarried, your tax home is in a foreign country, and you are a U.S. citizen who was a bona fide resident for the entire tax year. On the last day, the foreign bank deposit and the foreign brokerage account that count total $180,000. In March those same accounts were worth $310,000. The house in your own name, the IRA at a U.S. broker, and currency in a drawer stay out of the total.

The instructions already run the joint numbers. In Example 11, spouses abroad file separately and one spouse is not a specified individual. A joint asset is $150,000, that spouse's own asset is $10,000, and yours is $60,000. You count the whole joint asset: $150,000 plus $60,000 is $210,000, over the $200,000 last-day line, so you file and your spouse does not. Example 10 is the opposite result: a joint return abroad with $150,000 combined on any day stays under $400,000 and $600,000, so they do not file. If both spouses are specified individuals filing separately, each uses half the joint asset for the threshold only, then reports the entire maximum on the form if a filing is required. A co-owner who is not your spouse makes each of you count the whole asset.

Assets already on another IRS form

Still count them toward your personal threshold. If you timely report all of them on Form 3520, Form 3520-A, Form 5471, Form 8621, or Form 8865, do not list them again. Put your name and taxpayer identification number on Form 8938 and complete Part IV only. If only some are on those forms, report the rest and still complete Part IV.

What does it cost to skip Form 8938?

If you were required to file and you do not file a complete and correct Form 8938 by the due date, including extensions, the penalty is $10,000. If the IRS mails a notice and you still have not filed within 90 days, an additional $10,000 can apply for each 30-day period, or part of a period, after those 90 days. The maximum additional penalty is $50,000. On a joint return the penalties apply as if you were one person, and the liability is joint and several. The IRS restates those amounts on its page for international information reporting penalties under section 6038D.

If you underpay because of an undisclosed specified foreign financial asset, the accuracy-related penalty is 40 percent of that underpayment, not of the asset. The instructions use an unreported foreign-corporation distribution, an unreported gain on foreign shares, and an unreported foreign-pension distribution. Fraud, when it is the reason for the underpayment, is 75 percent of that underpayment. Criminal penalties can apply as well. A foreign law that punishes disclosure is not reasonable cause. You have to show that the miss was not willful neglect.

If you cannot give the IRS enough value information when asked, you are presumed over your threshold. Fail to file, or fail to report a required asset, and the assessment window can stay open until three years after you file Form 8938. Omit more than $5,000 of gross income tied to these assets and the window is six years from the return, even if you were under the threshold or an exception kept the asset off the form.

Attach it to the return, or amend

Form 8938 rides with the annual return. For an individual that is Form 1040, Form 1040-SR, or Form 1040-NR, by that return's due date, including extensions. Do not mail the form alone. If the return already went in without it, file Form 1040-X with Form 8938 attached. You report the assets even when they do not change the tax. A year with no required return is a year without this form.

1. Confirm the tax home is in a foreign country, using the tax-home test rather than the visa.
2. Confirm the citizen bona fide test for a full tax year, or 330 full days in a 12-month period ending in the tax year. If neither fits, use the domestic dollar line.
3. List foreign accounts and the non-account investments the instructions include. Leave out a personally owned house, currency in a drawer, directly held gold, a U.S. IRA, and a U.S. brokerage account.
4. Convert with the Treasury rate for purchasing dollars on the last day of the tax year, or with the rate on an annual account statement.
5. Test the last day and the peak. Use half of a joint asset for the threshold only when both spouses are specified individuals filing separate returns. Use the whole joint asset when the other owner is not a specified spouse.
6. If you are over, attach Form 8938 to the return. If every reportable asset is already on Form 3520, Form 3520-A, Form 5471, Form 8621, or Form 8865, file Form 8938 with Part IV only. If the original return omitted it, file Form 1040-X with the form attached.
7. Ask separately whether foreign accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time in the calendar year for FinCEN Form 114.

File in the year the total is actually over

Use the higher lines only in a year the tax home is abroad and a presence test is met, then compare the last day and the peak. A joint return abroad is the $400,000 and $600,000 pair. Everyone else who qualifies abroad, including a spouse filing separately, uses $200,000 and $300,000. The domestic lines are much lower, and a specified domestic entity stays on $50,000 and $75,000. Keep the worksheet with the rest of your expat tax and finance records, because if you cannot show the maximum later, the instructions presume you are over the line.

Data notes / Sources checked

Pages checked in October 2026. The instructions are the November 2021 continuous-use revision. The filing page was reviewed 20 September 2026, the questions-and-answers page 17 August 2026, and the Treasury rate page 19 March 2026.

• Instructions for Form 8938, including thresholds, presence abroad, valuation, penalties, and Examples 2, 3, 10, 11, and 15.
• Do I need to file Form 8938, reviewed 20 September 2026.
• Basic questions and answers on Form 8938, reviewed 17 August 2026.
• International information reporting penalties, section 6038D.
• FinCEN, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, the aggregate over $10,000.
• Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange, Bureau of the Fiscal Service.
• IRS comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR requirements.