Editorial Policy

This page explains how content on FBAR Reference is researched, written, reviewed and corrected, and how advertising is kept separate from editorial judgement. We publish it so readers can judge the material rather than take it on trust.

Scope and purpose

FBAR Reference publishes general educational explanations of United States foreign financial account reporting obligations, principally the FBAR (FinCEN Form 114). Our purpose is to make the rules comprehensible and to point readers to the primary sources. We do not provide advice, and we do not hold ourselves out as anyone’s tax adviser or attorney.

Sourcing

Content is built from primary and official sources, in this order of preference:

1. The statute — principally 31 U.S.C. §§ 5314, 5321 and 5322.
2. The regulations — principally 31 C.F.R. §§ 1010.350, 1010.420 and 1010.821.
3. The current form and its instructions — FinCEN Form 114 and the line-item filing instructions.
4. Official agency guidance — FinCEN notices and administrative rulings, and IRS publications, reference guides and procedural pages.
5. Decided cases, where a point has been settled or clarified by a court.

We do not build content from other commentary sites, and we do not treat another publisher’s summary as a source. Where a page relies on a specific authority, that authority is named in the text or linked from our official sources page.

Writing standards

• Plain English. Technical terms are used where precision requires them and defined in the glossary.
• Uncertainty is stated, not smoothed over. Where a rule is unsettled, where agency practice differs from the strict wording, or where a change has been signalled but not finalised, we say so explicitly.
• No fabricated precision. We avoid publishing figures that change annually — inflation-adjusted penalty maximums in particular — and instead tell readers where the current figure is published. A number that is right this year and wrong next year is worse than a pointer.
• Examples are labelled as illustrative. Worked examples use invented facts and round numbers, and say so.
• No scare tactics. Penalties are described accurately, including the mitigating factors, the defences and the fact that most matters resolve civilly and often without a monetary penalty.
• Boundaries acknowledged. Where a question genuinely requires professional judgement — foreign pensions, willfulness, residency start and end dates — we say that instead of guessing.

Review and dating

Every page carries a last reviewed date. A review means the content was checked against the sources listed above as at that date. Pages are reviewed when:

• the statute, regulations or form instructions change;
• FinCEN or the IRS issues relevant guidance or a notice;
• a court decision alters the position;
• a reader reports an error; or
• in the ordinary course, at least annually.

We do not refresh a date without actually re-checking the content. A review date is a statement about work done, not a search-engine tactic.

Corrections

We correct errors. Our approach:

• Substantive errors — anything that could lead a reader to a wrong conclusion about their obligations — are corrected as soon as we have verified the point, and the page’s review date is updated.
• Typographical and formatting fixes are made without ceremony.
• We do not quietly delete a page to make an error disappear.
• Reader reports are welcome and read. If you tell us something is wrong, please say which page and, if you can, which source you are relying on — it makes verification much faster.

Report an error through our contact page.

Advertising and editorial independence

This site is free to read and funded by advertising. The separation between advertising and editorial content is absolute, and specifically:

• No advertiser sees, reviews or approves content before publication.
• No page is written, changed, promoted or removed because of an advertiser’s interests.
• We publish no sponsored articles, paid reviews, paid placements or advertorial. If that ever changed, any such item would be labelled unmistakably.
• We do not sell links and do not accept payment for including or omitting any link.
• Advertisements are labelled and confined to defined slots. They are never styled to resemble editorial text, site navigation or an official notice.
• Outbound links are editorial. Links to government sources are chosen because they are the authority for a statement, never because anyone paid for them.

How advertising technology handles your data, and how to decline advertising cookies, is covered in our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.

What we will not publish

• Advice on an individual’s circumstances, however specific the question.
• Strategies for avoiding or evading a reporting obligation, concealing accounts or defeating detection.
• Claims that we can reduce, negotiate or eliminate a penalty.
• Guarantees about outcomes with the IRS, FinCEN or any other agency.
• Content implying an affiliation with, or endorsement by, any government body.
• Content designed to look like an official government communication.

Use of automated tools

Where software assists in drafting, formatting or checking content, a human reviews the result against the primary sources before publication, and St Fin Corp takes editorial responsibility for everything on the site. No page is published on the basis of an automated summary alone.

Reader privacy

We do not ask readers for account numbers, balances, taxpayer identification numbers or other sensitive personal information, and readers should never send such details to us. Our Privacy Policy explains what limited information we do handle.