How to File an FBAR

Before you start

Filing itself takes most individuals under an hour. Nearly all of the work is in the preparation. Assemble the following before you open the form:

• Your own details — full legal name as it appears on your identification, date of birth, taxpayer identification number (Social Security number or ITIN; entities use their EIN), and current address.
• For each foreign account: the account number or other identifying designation, the full name of the financial institution, its address, the type of account (bank, securities, or other), and the maximum value during the calendar year in U.S. dollars.
• Joint account details — the name, address and taxpayer identification number of each co-owner, where you have one.
• The Treasury year-end exchange rate for each currency involved, if any account is not denominated in dollars.
• A working email address — the confirmation of receipt is emailed to you.

If you have not yet worked out which accounts qualify or how to value them, start with reportable accounts and the $10,000 threshold.

Two ways to file

The FBAR is filed electronically through FinCEN’s BSA E-Filing System. There are two paths into it, and individuals should almost always take the first.

The individual route also offers a downloadable PDF version of the form that can be completed offline and then uploaded — useful on a slow connection, or where you want to prepare the form over several sessions. The PDF requires a reasonably current version of Adobe Acrobat Reader; it does not reliably work inside a web browser’s built-in PDF viewer, which is the single most common technical complaint about the process.

Step-by-step walkthrough

1. Open the individual filing form

   Go to the BSA E-Filing System and choose the option to file an FBAR as an individual. You will be asked to acknowledge that you are filing the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. No account or password is needed on this route.

2. Select the filing type and year

   Indicate whether this is a new report or an amendment to a previously filed one, and enter the calendar year being reported. If the report is late, select or enter the reason from the options provided — do not leave it blank, and do not treat a report filed by 15 October as late.

3. Complete Part I — filer information

   Enter your filer type (individual, partnership, corporation, fiduciary or other), name exactly as it appears on your identification, taxpayer identification number, date of birth and address. Take care with the identification number: a mistyped digit is one of the more troublesome errors to unwind.

4. Complete Part II — accounts you own separately

   For each solely owned account, enter the maximum value in U.S. dollars, the account number, the institution name, and the institution’s full address including country. Select the account type. Add a separate entry for every account — there is no aggregation on the form itself.

5. Complete Part III — accounts you own jointly

   Report each jointly held account at its full maximum value, not your share, and add the co-owner’s name, address and taxpayer identification number where you have it. If you do not have a co-owner’s identification number, provide what you have.

6. Complete Part IV — signature authority only

   List accounts you can control but have no financial interest in, with the details of the account owner. See signature authority for whether an exception applies to you.

7. Review every figure

   Check the maximum values against your statements, confirm each currency conversion used the year-end Treasury rate, and confirm no account has been omitted. Print or save a copy of the completed form before submitting.

8. Sign and submit

   Sign electronically by ticking the signature box and entering your name, then submit. The system validates the form and will tell you about missing required fields before it accepts the filing.

9. Keep the confirmation

   You will receive an acknowledgement on screen and a confirmation email containing a BSA identifier for the submission. Save both, along with a copy of the filed form, for at least five years — see recordkeeping.

What each part of the form covers

If you have more than 25 accounts in a category, the form allows you to indicate the number of accounts rather than itemising each one — but you must retain the full details of every account and produce them on request. The relief is from data entry, not from recordkeeping.

Confirmation and proof of filing

Two artefacts prove you filed:

• The acknowledgement email from the BSA E-Filing System, containing the identifier assigned to your submission.
• A saved copy of the submitted form, which you should download at the point of filing rather than hoping to retrieve it later.

If you need to establish that a report was filed in a past year and no longer hold the confirmation, FinCEN can provide verification of filing on request — a process that requires specific identifying information and takes time. It is far easier to keep the confirmation in the first place.

Having someone file for you

A spouse, a preparer or another third party may submit the report on your behalf, but the authorisation must be documented on FinCEN Form 114a, Record of Authorization to Electronically File FBARs.

• Form 114a is not submitted to FinCEN. It is completed, signed by the account owner and by the person filing, and retained by both.
• It must be available to FinCEN or the IRS on request.
• Without it, a third-party submission is not properly authorised.

The spousal rules that allow a single FBAR to cover both spouses are narrow and are set out on the signature authority page.

Paper filing

Electronic filing is mandatory. A filer who genuinely cannot file electronically may request an exemption by contacting FinCEN’s regulatory helpline; if the request is granted, FinCEN provides the paper form and instructions for submitting it. This is an exception granted case by case, not an alternative you can simply choose, and you should not send an unrequested paper form.

Mistakes to avoid

• Reporting only the largest accounts. Once you file, every reportable account belongs on the form.
• Using the year-end balance instead of the maximum value. The figure required is the peak during the year.
• Converting at the wrong date’s exchange rate. Use the Treasury rate for the last day of the reported year, not the rate on the day of the peak.
• Reporting half of a joint account. Joint accounts go on at full value.
• Assuming an income-tax extension covers the FBAR. It does not; the FBAR extension is separate and automatic.
• Filing a duplicate instead of an amendment. To correct a filed report, submit an amended FBAR referencing the original, rather than a second original.
• Forgetting Form 114a when a spouse or preparer signs for you.
• Letting the confirmation email go unsaved. It is your proof of filing.

Where to go next

• Signature authority, joint accounts and spouses — Parts III and IV in detail.
• Recordkeeping — what to keep once you have filed.
• Late and amended filings — corrections and prior years.
• Official sources — direct links to the filing system and instructions.