Foreign Bank Account Reporting Compliance Guide (2017)

The Foreign Bank Account Reporting Compliance Guide (2017) is an essential resource because substantial civil penalties may be imposed for for non-willful violations and for willful violations criminal penalties and imprisonment may be imposed in addition to the civil penalties.

If one owns or has authority over a foreign financial account, including a bank account, brokerage account, mutual fund, unit trust or some other type of financial account, he or she may be required to make an annual report of the account to the Internal Revenue Service. Under the Bank Secrecy Act, each United States person must file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), if the person has a financial interest in or signature authority (or other authority that is comparable to signature authority) over one or more accounts in a foreign country and the aggregate value of all foreign financial accounts exceeds threshold amounts at any time during the calendar year.

In addition, the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (HIRE Act), signed into law by President Obama in 2010, substantially incorporates the measures designed to stop tax evasion contained in the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) of 2009.

Under FATCA, U.S. taxpayers with specified foreign financial assets that exceed certain thresholds must report those assets to the IRS on Form 8938, which will be attached to their federal income tax return. This reporting is in addition to the foreign bank account report.

The Form 8938 reporting is applicable to all “specified persons” who are considered to hold an interest in a “specified foreign financial asset” which meets the “reporting thresholds.” In December 2011, the IRS issued temporary (TD 9567) and proposed (REG-130302-10) regulations which provide guidance on the requirement that certain foreign financial assets be reported to the IRS for tax years beginning after March 2010. This requirement comes from Section 6038D which was added to the Internal Revenue Code under the HIRE Act.

This is an important new IRS compliance requirement with huge monetary civil penalties at stake as well as potential criminal consequences. It has ongoing compliance reporting requirements with enforcement teeth behind it and this publication provides the necessary guidance.