FBARs Are Due on April 15th This Year. Not the Income Tax Filing Deadline of May 17th!

UPDATE: You have until October 15th.

The Internal Revenue Service issued a notice on April 9^th reminding U.S. citizens, resident aliens and any domestic legal entity that the deadline to file their annual Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) is still April 15, 2021. The extension of the federal income tax filing due date and other tax deadlines for individuals to May 17, 2021, does not affect the FBAR requirement.

This could cause many Taxpayers to inadvertently file their FBAR late. The deadline to file the FBAR was changed several years ago to coincide with the deadline for filing individual tax returns in an effort to assist with compliance. With this most recent extension, however, it puts individuals at risk of late filing, since the deadlines are no longer on the same date. Interestingly, in past years the IRS granted an automatic extension of time to file FBARs to October 15^th for FBARs, but there is no mention of the automatic extension in the IRS notice.

Our tax lawyers are recommending that Taxpayers confirm with their tax preparers that the FBAR will be timely filed by the April 15^th due date, or in the alternative submit an extension of time to file for their Form 1040, which will also extend the FBAR filing deadline. We also recommend that CPAs and other tax preparers make sure their clients don’t miss this important filing deadline.

UPDATE: You have until October 15th.

As a reminder, the Bank Secrecy Act requires U.S. persons to file a FBAR if they have:

Financial interest in, signature authority or other authority over one or more accounts, such as a bank account, brokerage account, mutual fund or other financial account in a foreign country, and
The aggregate value of all foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year.

Because of this threshold, the IRS encourages U.S. persons or entities with foreign accounts, even relatively small ones, to check if this filing requirement applies to them.

A U.S. person is a citizen or resident of the United States or any domestic legal entity such as a partnership, corporation, limited liability company, estate or trust.

The 2021 FBAR must be filed electronically with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and is only available through the BSA E-Filing System website. Taxpayers who are unable to e-file their FBAR must call FinCEN at 800-949-2732, from outside the U.S. 703-905-3975.

Those who don’t file an FBAR when required may be subject to significant civil and criminal penalties that can result in a fine and/or prison. The IRS will not penalize those who properly reported a foreign account on a late-filed FBAR if the IRS determines there was reasonable cause for late filing.

If you have missed an FBAR filing deadline in the past, consult with one of our qualified tax lawyers who have experience with FBARs.