FBAR Filing Date
The deadline to file FBAR generally is April 15th. However, you are given an automatic extension on October 15th if you don’t file your FBAR on April 15th.
| FBAR Deadline | FBAR Automatic Extended Deadline |
|---|---|
| 15th April | 15th October |
FBAR counts some of your foreign financial data and holds them for taxation by assessing different reports about your foreign accounts. Both FBAR and FinCEN 114 are used interchangeably, but they both refer to the same subject.
Moreover, in the previous years, the deadline for FBAR was 30th June. However, to make the taxation process smooth and to align with Form 1040, the FBAR deadline was shifted to April 15th.
FBAR Deadline Extension and Points to Qualify
As mentioned before, FBAR gets an automatic extension till October 15th. However, there are some other extensions as well. These extensions are meant for some specific reasons and to address some of the people under them.
The US department (FinCEN) released a document called FinCEN Notice 2021 – 1. This notice states that some people who were responsible to submit FinCEN Form 114 now have an extended deadline until April 15, 2023.
There are two main requirements to qualify for an extension:
- A person with signature authority over one or more accounts. These accounts should be based in some foreign land. Moreover, he/she should not have any financial interest in the account.
- Anybody who is an employee/officer and is signed with SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission). The individual, once again, should have signature authority and should not possess any financial interest in the foreign accounts.
We understand that it may appear confusing. You should not file any of your taxes with confusion involved in the process. If you need help with extensions, feel free to consult us today.
Do I need to file FBAR?
Following are some of the requirements for the people who need to file FBAR (FinCEN Form 114):
- Anybody who has signature authority and financial interests in one or more bank accounts in a foreign country. These financial interests are not only limited to bank accounts, but also include other financial belongings such as investments, mutual funds, businesses, and the list goes on.
- If the overall or aggregate amount of your financial belongings in a foreign country exceeds an amount of $10,000, you need to file FBAR for taxation processes. Please note that you need to calculate the value of all the accounts to measure if you are required to file FBAR.
There are additional details as well to check if you have to file FBAR.
Penalties for not filing FBAR
The penalties for not filing FBAR vary a lot. It depends upon contextual details about why the filings got late. Moreover, FinCen directly deals with FBAR, and the IRS is not directly involved in the process. This makes the late filing penalties even high.
Generally, these penalties are divided into two parts.
- Non-willful penalty: this includes that you were unaware of filing FBAR or did NOT purposely avoid filing FBAR.
The penalty for this situation may start from $10,000. - Willful Penalty: this includes the situation in which you were aware of filing FBAR, but you purposely avoid filing your taxes in order the cheat the system.
The penalty for this situation may start from $100,000 and you may also be penalized for half of your account balances in foreign accounts.
Get Help to File Your FBAR (FinCEN 114 Form)
We have written a complete dedicated article explaining FBAR complicated process. These details cover different forms you may need to submit and what it means to file FBAR.
Moreover, If you are finding any difficulty to file your foreign accounts for tax purposes, we are here to help you. At AkifCPA, we make sure every single individual pays fewer taxes with professional consultation. This is obvious from our years of expertise and reviews as well.
We’ll make sure that you save your precious time and money with us. Contact us today.
