# reporting empty account?



## apineve (Jul 7, 2016)

hi all,

i am curious about something:

if the aggregate value of 2 accounts meets the filing threshold for the fbar and 8938, but your third account is empty, i assume you would file the fbar and 8938 only for the accounts which are active and have money in them? so if you had an old account which has not had any money in it in years you would not include it?



thanks


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Technically speaking, you should include the empty account. If your aggregate total hits the threshold level, you're supposed to report all your foreign accounts - which presumably includes the 0 balance ones if they're still open. (Whether or not they'd "come after you" for failure to report a 0 balance, inactive account is another issue, but better safe than sorry, no?)

The main thing you're reporting is, after all, the existence of foreign accounts, not really the balances.
Cheers,
Bev


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