# FBARS - married - joint owners



## cuerna1 (Mar 7, 2015)

We've mailed the return (and have a receipt from the post office to prove it). I've filed the FBARs (and have a receipt to prove it). But with the FBARs it felt differently this year. My wife and I are equals in life. We try to make sure that all our accounts have both of us as 'co-owners'. Here in Mexico it seems there is always a primary owner however. Last year I called FBAR technical support and explained our situation (after having submitted it as 'joint owners') and the instructions I received were - 'you both need to file' - so 'you need to file an amended FBAR'. But this year - even though I filed an FBAR for me (and then simply copied the file over for my wife (changing only the name etc) and submitted it. 

We are not trying to hide anything. I just figured more information submitted would be better than less. (btw - I padded all our accounts by 5,000 USD as well). So - should a married couple file one FBAR or two - this year ?


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Are both you and your wife US citizens?
Cheers,
Bev


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## cuerna1 (Mar 7, 2015)

Bevdeforges said:


> Are both you and your wife US citizens?
> Cheers,
> Bev


Yes - we are both US citizens and permanent residents of Mexico.

For the future - would it make a difference if that were to change (eg - only one of us was a US citizen) ?

Thanks


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## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

Well, the non-U.S. person would not have a FinCEN Form 114 filing obligation. The U.S. person would.

But why is this a problem, exactly? There are plenty of examples of information overlap. For example, do both you and your wife have driver's licenses in Mexico? They contain the same addresses, don't they? Why do both of you, as a married couple, have to report the same address on two different driver's licenses? Isn't it enough to say "married"?

....It's the same thing. Each of you has a license responsibility, individually. You both report the same information (your joint home address). Likewise, you both individually have a particular financial reporting responsibility, and some (or a lot) of the information you both report overlaps. But so what? That's perfectly fine.

U.S. Social Security is the same thing, to pick another example. If you both individually qualify for Social Security benefits, you apply individually. But there's a lot of information overlap when you each apply.

This'd be a *very* odd reason for one party to terminate a valuable citizenship.


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## ForeignBody (Oct 20, 2011)

If all your accounts are joint with your wife you only need to file one return. There are clear instructions on how to do this on the FCEN website.

However, having submitted two separate ones should not be an issue.


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