Why there are two forms
The two reports exist because they were created forty years apart, by different laws, for different agencies, to solve different problems.
- The FBAR comes from the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970. It is a Treasury financial-crime reporting tool, administered by FinCEN, concerned with accounts held abroad.
- Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets, comes from FATCA — enacted as part of the HIRE Act in 2010 and codified at Internal Revenue Code § 6038D. It is a tax form, filed with your return, concerned with assets held abroad.
Neither replaced the other, and no attempt has been made to merge them. The result is substantial duplication: many people report the same accounts twice, in different formats, to different parts of the government, under different deadlines and penalty regimes.
The one sentence to remember
Filing the FBAR does not satisfy Form 8938, and filing Form 8938 does not satisfy the FBAR. Where both apply, both must be filed, in full, separately.
Side-by-side comparison
| FBAR — FinCEN Form 114 | IRS Form 8938 | |
|---|---|---|
| Legal basis | Bank Secrecy Act, 31 U.S.C. § 5314 | FATCA, Internal Revenue Code § 6038D |
| Filed with | FinCEN, through the BSA E-Filing System | The IRS, attached to your income tax return |
| Who files | United States persons — individuals and entities, trusts and estates | “Specified individuals” and certain “specified domestic entities”, and only if a return must be filed |
| Threshold | Over $10,000 aggregate, at any time in the year — one figure for everyone | From $50,000 to $600,000 depending on filing status and residence — see below |
| What is reported | Foreign financial accounts | Specified foreign financial assets — a wider category including accounts |
| Signature authority without ownership | Reportable | Not reportable — an ownership interest is required |
| Valuation | Maximum value during the year, in U.S. dollars | Maximum value during the year, in U.S. dollars |
| Deadline | 15 April, automatically extended to 15 October | The due date of the income tax return, including any extension actually obtained |
| Filing if no return is due | Still required if the threshold is met | Not required — the obligation attaches to a return |
| Civil penalties | Non-willful: up to $10,000 (as adjusted) per report. Willful: greater of $100,000 (as adjusted) or 50% of the account balance | $10,000 for failure to file, plus up to $50,000 in continuation penalties after notice, and a 40% accuracy-related penalty on understatements attributable to undisclosed assets |
| Effect on the limitation period | Six-year window to assess the FBAR penalty | Can extend the assessment period for the whole return, including keeping it open until the form is filed |
Form 8938 thresholds
Unlike the FBAR’s single $10,000 figure, Form 8938 has a grid. Each row has two tests, and the form is required if either is met.
| Filing status and residence | Value on the last day of the year | Value at any time during the year |
|---|---|---|
| Unmarried, living in the U.S. | Over $50,000 | Over $75,000 |
| Married filing jointly, living in the U.S. | Over $100,000 | Over $150,000 |
| Married filing separately, living in the U.S. | Over $50,000 | Over $75,000 |
| Unmarried, living abroad | Over $200,000 | Over $300,000 |
| Married filing jointly, living abroad | Over $400,000 | Over $600,000 |
| Married filing separately, living abroad | Over $200,000 | Over $300,000 |
Because the lowest Form 8938 threshold is five times the FBAR threshold, the ordinary pattern is clear: most people who must file Form 8938 must also file an FBAR, but many FBAR filers are below the Form 8938 thresholds.
Where the asset lists differ
The two forms overlap heavily on accounts and diverge on everything else.
| Holding | FBAR | Form 8938 |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign bank account | Yes | Yes |
| Foreign brokerage account | Yes | Yes |
| Foreign insurance or annuity with cash value | Yes | Yes |
| Signature authority, no ownership interest | Yes | No |
| Directly held foreign stock or securities (not in an account) | No | Yes |
| Interest in a foreign partnership or company | No | Yes |
| Foreign-issued note, bond or loan receivable held directly | No | Yes |
| Interest in a foreign trust or estate | Sometimes, on the interest test | Yes |
| Foreign real estate held directly | No | No |
| Foreign real estate held through a foreign entity | No, but the entity’s accounts may be | The interest in the entity is reportable |
| Precious metals held personally | No | No |
| Foreign account held at a U.S. branch | No | No |
The two divergences that matter most in practice are at opposite ends: signature authority is an FBAR-only concept, and directly held foreign assets that are not accounts are a Form 8938-only concept.
When you must file both
You will generally file both where you are an individual with an income tax filing obligation, you have an ownership interest in foreign financial accounts or assets, and the values clear both thresholds. Practical notes:
- Report the same account on both forms. There is no election to pick one.
- Watch the deadlines separately. The FBAR extension to 15 October is automatic; Form 8938 follows your return, so it is extended only if you actually obtain a tax extension.
- Form 8938 has a duplication rule, but it is narrow. Assets reported on certain other IRS forms — such as Forms 3520, 5471 or 8621 — need not be duplicated on Form 8938 if identified there. The FBAR is not one of those forms, so it gives no such relief.
- The forms are checked against each other. Inconsistent values or accounts appearing on one and not the other are precisely the kind of discrepancy that prompts a question.
Other forms in the same family
Foreign holdings often trigger more than these two reports. Depending on the facts, you may also encounter:
| Form | Broad purpose |
|---|---|
| 3520 / 3520-A | Transactions with foreign trusts, and large gifts or bequests from foreign persons |
| 5471 | U.S. persons’ interests in controlled foreign corporations |
| 8865 | U.S. persons’ interests in foreign partnerships |
| 8621 | Interests in passive foreign investment companies — which catches many ordinary foreign mutual funds |
| 926 | Transfers of property to a foreign corporation |
These carry their own penalties, several of them severe, and Form 8621 in particular catches people who thought they had bought nothing more exotic than a local index fund. If your foreign holdings go beyond deposit accounts, a professional review of which forms apply is a sound investment.
A worked example
Maria — U.S. citizen, unmarried, living in Chicago
Her foreign holdings for the year peaked as follows:
- Bank account in Lisbon: $18,000
- Brokerage account in Lisbon: $26,000
- Shares in a Portuguese company, held directly as registered shares, not in any account: $40,000
- Signature authority over her employer’s account in Madrid: $500,000, none of it hers
- An apartment in Porto, owned directly: $300,000
FBAR: she reports the Lisbon bank account, the Lisbon brokerage account and — in Part IV — the Madrid employer account. Her aggregate is well over $10,000. The directly held shares and the apartment are not accounts and are excluded.
Form 8938: her specified foreign financial assets are the two Lisbon accounts and the directly held shares, totalling $84,000 — above the $50,000 year-end and $75,000 any-time tests for an unmarried filer in the United States, so the form is required. The employer account is excluded because she has no ownership interest, and the apartment is excluded because directly held real estate is not a specified foreign financial asset.
Note the outcome: five holdings, two forms, and a different subset of holdings on each. That is the ordinary result of the two regimes, not an anomaly.
Where to go next
- Which accounts are reportable — the FBAR account list in detail.
- The $10,000 threshold — the FBAR value test.
- Penalties — the FBAR side of the exposure.
- Official sources — the Form 8938 instructions and the IRS comparison table.
Reminder. Form 8938 thresholds, definitions and exceptions are set out in the current IRS instructions, and the “living abroad” test has a specific technical meaning summarised only loosely here. The worked example is illustrative. This page is general educational information published by St Fin Corp, not tax or legal advice — verify against the official sources and take advice on your own facts.