# fbar letter



## berniej (Mar 5, 2012)

when you do the letter for the fbar what would you have to put in it other than you had no idea you had to do them.Someone snt me these don't know if you would use any of them
A big issue with the IRS is whether or not you reported the foreign interest or dividend associated with the foreign accounts. There are a number of possibilities here:

1. There was no foreign bank interest or dividends reported. If this is the case, state it.

2. There was foreign bank interest or dividends but they were reported on your daughter's taxes. State that.

3. There was foreign interest and dividends but there were foreign taxes withheld so there was no net taxes due on the amount, state that.

4. there were foreign interest and divs but your daughters weren't required to file a tax return due to income limits or had so little income it didn't make a difference.

5. Worst case: You had foreign int and divs, did not report them, and your daughters owe taxes. You need to file 1040Xs and just state that

6. you didn't understand the tax laws.
got these from another site and other than #6 should you also use

Do I have to say anything on the in the fbar letter about interest or just I didn't know what was going on.

Thanks again.

Bernie


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Don't mention anything about interest or income in the FBAR letter. The FBAR form is simply a declaration that you have an account overseas. You only recently learned that you were supposed to file this, and so now you are filing your current FBAR along with x prior years. Period. 

Though there has apparently been lots of publicity lately in Canada about the need to file, there is nada over here in Europe, and there are still lots of people who have no idea that they are supposed to be filing, never mind what they are supposed to file.

The Treasury Dept. only needs and wants to know about the existence of the accounts. If and when the IRS has questions about any interest or dividends, they'll be in touch. But technically speaking, they aren't supposed to have access to the FBAR form information (at least up until a year or two ago that was the case).
Cheers,
Bev


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## berniej (Mar 5, 2012)

Okay I will just send what I thought I should ie: I didn't know anything(ain't that the truth)

Thank you again for the good info

Thanks

Bernie




Bevdeforges said:


> Don't mention anything about interest or income in the FBAR letter. The FBAR form is simply a declaration that you have an account overseas. You only recently learned that you were supposed to file this, and so now you are filing your current FBAR along with x prior years. Period.
> 
> Though there has apparently been lots of publicity lately in Canada about the need to file, there is nada over here in Europe, and there are still lots of people who have no idea that they are supposed to be filing, never mind what they are supposed to file.
> 
> ...


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## Omater (Nov 26, 2011)

I used Official IRS Guidance For Taxpayers Who Have Not Filed U.S. Tax Forms to help me structure my letter, which is more or less a summary of the publication on the IRS website where they say they will not penalize us based on reasonable cause.


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