Book Description

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) (Form TD F 90-22.1), 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 $10,000 at any time during the calendar year. The FBAR is required, because foreign financial institutions may not be subject to the same reporting requirements as domestic financial institutions. The FBAR is a tool to help the United States government identify persons who may be, in the view of the IRS, using foreign bank accounts to circumvent United States law. Investigators will use the FBARs to help them identify or trace funds used for illicit purposes or to identify unreported income maintained or generated abroad. Civil penalties for non-willful FBAR violations can be imposed up to an amount of $10,000 per violation. For willful violations the penalty can be up to the greater of $100,000 or 50 percent of the account balance, per violation. Criminal penalties can result in fines of up to $500,000 and imprisonment of up to 10 years and may be imposed in conjunction with the civil penalties. 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.