# fbar filing



## larrys62 (Apr 19, 2012)

hello all. i hope this is the right place to ask my question.
i live in israel and i must file my fbar for 2011. last year my accounent prepared it but this year he advised me to do it myself and just change line 15. my account is in nis and i will convert it to dollars. the question is, is the maximum value of account refering to my monthly income or my yearly income? i own one account that contains my salary. any and all help will be appreciated. thanx


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

On the FBAR form (the official number for the form is TD F 90-22.1), the maximum value of the account has nothing to do with your monthly or yearly income. What you need is the highest value in the account during the year.

The official instructions say to use the highest value reported based on your monthly or quarterly statements (though not all countries and financial institutions report things this way). Take whatever balance statements you have for the account, ask yourself if there were any spikes in the balance that you can recall during the year. Convert the highest balance you have a statement for to US dollars using an average rate for the year, and if you're not sure, then add a comfort factor to that of 10, 20 or 30%.

There is no tax that is based on the number you report, so overestimating doesn't cost you anything. And frankly, they don't particularly check the accuracy of the balance. Just that you have reported your authority over the account(s). 
Cheers,
Bev


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