# FBAR question



## Fbarquestion

So I'm trying to get my head around this FBAR. I know this is not the right forum to ask this but I'm finding it difficult to find any other forum that talks about it. 

I am a green card holder who currently lives in the USA and has done for the past few years. This is my first year being over the threshold to file income taxes. I have never even seen a tax form before yesterday. So this brings me to the realization of an FBAR. Before yesterday I had never even heard of it. I had over 10k in foreign accounts that I was slowly moving over and living off. 

How am I supposed to file old FBARs when it says you will not receive a penalty as long as youve correctly reported interest and you have no tax owed if I never needed to file taxes in the first place. Yes I did have over 10k and yes interest was earned but the it wouldn't have put me anywhere near the filing threshold. 

Tried messaging bev as I see her comment a lot on FBARs but it won't allow me. 

Thanks


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## Moulard

FinCen Form 114 (aka the FBAR form) reporting is required on Financial accounts even if you do not have to file income taxes.

Its a separate reporting requirement of similar info if you happen to also have a tax filing requirement.

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about back filing of the FinCen forms particularly if you did not have to file taxes. Double so if the interest received was too low to require filing or the sums are not in the 6 figure level..

But... if it will keep you up at night, its pretty easy to do if you still have bank statements or their equivalent. If you don't you can use the guess high suggestion below.

Here is the quickest way to get up to date 

Download the form.
Add all the relevant account information
Add an "excuse" from the dropdown list.
Save it out as a template that you only have to add the info that changes from year to year.

For each year you want/need to back file

Find the exchange rate for 31 Dec for the year in question.. 
https://fiscal.treasury.gov/reports-statements/treasury-reporting-rates-exchange/historical.html

Skim through your statement to find the highest balance.
alternatively, if you don't have statements, as it doens't have to be accurate.. you can take an educated guess... but just guess high -- Many people just round up to a figure well above what they might have had. 
Convert to USD using the exchange rate above
Pop in into the form

repeat for each account you have
Save it out with a separate filename for that year.

Rinse and repeat... technically for up to 6 years if you met filing thresholds for each of those 6 years.

Once all done, simply submit all of the forms, one after the other.

And that will be the last you ever hear of it beyond an acknowledgement email from FinCen.
Save that away where you would store your tax returns.


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## Bevdeforges

As Moulard has already said, the FBAR is simply a reporting filing. There is no tax involved. You have to report online and there are no penalties for "over reporting" so convert your foreign bank balances and then add a healthy margin in $$. I generally report the "high balance" in round numbers anyhow (i.e. $50,000 rather than $47,653). Keep it simple and you should be fine.

They generally don't really even check the FBARs unless there is something "funny" about your 1040 returns.


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## RyanPatt

I have a quick question for you guys. This year I wouldn't usually need to file an FBAR but we got a loan to buy a house and the money was on my account for less than a day as we had to transfer it to the previous home owner. Does mean that I have to file an FBAR? Should I write something to indicate that this money was only on the account for auch a short amount of time? What are your thoughts?


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## Bevdeforges

Technically, you should report it, since it was the "high balance" for the account for the year. This sort of thing is really common in FBAR filings so no explanatory note or anything is required. They don't actually do much with the FBAR filings unless something "weird" shows up on your tax return - and even then they don't really seem to do much with the FBARs.


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