FBAR vs. FATCA for US expats: Key differences, filing rules, and when you need both

Written by  Mel Whitney, EA

Last updated Jul 10, 2026

FBAR and FATCA are two separate US foreign asset reporting regimes. FBAR is filed on FinCEN Form 114 with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau of the US Treasury. FATCA is filed on Form 8938 as an attachment to your Form 1040 with the IRS. Many US expats file both in the same year because the thresholds and asset scopes are different.

Here is the short version:

• FBAR reports foreign financial accounts – including foreign bank, securities/brokerage, mutual fund, and other reportable financial accounts, plus certain foreign-issued cash-value insurance or annuity contracts – once the aggregate value crosses $10,000 at any point during the year.
• Form 8938 reports specified foreign financial assets – accounts plus non-account holdings like foreign stock, partnership interests, and certain foreign insurance – once thresholds ranging from $50,000 to $600,000 are met, depending on filing status and residency.
• FBAR goes to FinCEN. Form 8938 goes to the IRS with your return.

This guide is written by Taxes for Expats, a US firm that has prepared expat tax filings for over 50,000 clients since 2001. Figures below apply to the 2025 tax year, filed during the 2026 filing season.

Quick FBAR vs. FATCA at a glance (key differences and when each applies)

FBAR is filed with FinCEN once foreign financial accounts exceed $10,000 in aggregate at any point during the year. Form 8938 is filed with the IRS once specified foreign financial assets exceed thresholds ranging from $50,000 to $600,000 based on filing status and residency.

The side-by-side view:

Three quick self-checks:

• You likely need FBAR only if your foreign accounts crossed $10,000 aggregate but your total specified foreign financial assets stayed below the Form 8938 threshold that applies to you.
• You likely need Form 8938 only if your specified foreign financial assets cross the Form 8938 threshold but your foreign accounts do not cross $10,000 – for example, when the reportable assets are non-account holdings like directly held foreign stock or a foreign partnership interest.
• You likely need both if your foreign accounts crossed $10,000 aggregate and your total specified foreign financial assets crossed the Form 8938 threshold.

FBAR vs. FATCA: Key differences

The split comes down to three practical questions: which agency reads the report, what value triggers it, and what kind of asset it covers.

Here is the full FBAR and FATCA comparison:

The three takeaways from the FBAR / FATCA comparison:

• The forms are different, filed with different agencies, and cover different (but overlapping) assets.
• Both can apply in the same tax year – filing one does not satisfy the other.
• At the assessment stage, the enforcement mechanics diverge: under the Supreme Court's 2023 Bittner v. United States decision, non-willful FBAR penalties apply per annual report, not per account, which changed how earlier per-account theories worked.

That per-report ruling is the clearest example of the difference between FATCA and FBAR as enforcement regimes: Form 8938 penalties start at $10,000 for a missed filing and stack over time after IRS notice; FBAR penalties are inflation-adjusted annually and now apply on a per-form basis for non-willful violations.

Certain US entities may be able to file a consolidated FBAR for accounts reported on behalf of qualifying subsidiaries, subject to the requirements in the FinCEN FBAR instructions.

FBAR filing requirements

FBAR – the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts – is required when the aggregate value of a US person's foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any point during the calendar year. It is filed electronically on FinCEN Form 114 through the BSA E-Filing System, not with your Form 1040.

FBAR applies even when no US tax is owed. The form is informational; it reports the existence and value of foreign accounts, not tax on them.

FBAR and FATCA reporting requirements run under different laws and cover different asset scopes, but the FBAR side is where most expats first cross a reporting line, because $10,000 is a low threshold. Here is what the FBAR regime requires:

The IRS overview of foreign bank and financial account reporting confirms these mechanics and covers the exceptions – US military banking facilities, certain IRAs, and accounts held through consolidated filers, among others.

For the mechanics of the form itself, see our full guide to the foreign bank account report and our breakdown of how to determine the maximum annual account balance for each account.

Need to file FBAR? Let our tax team handle it.

Learn more

Who must file

FBAR applies to US persons with a financial interest in – or signature authority over – at least one foreign financial account when the aggregate value crosses $10,000 at any time during the year. FATCA and FBAR requirements apply to overlapping but not identical groups of US persons; the FBAR side reaches further down the balance scale because of the $10,000 trigger.

Three categories of US person are covered:

• US citizens at home or abroad who hold non-US bank or investment accounts during the year.
• US resident aliens, including green card holders, with a financial interest in or authority over accounts outside the United States.
• US corporations, partnerships, LLCs, trusts, and estates that qualify as US persons and hold reportable accounts.

The decision splits three ways:

1. If you own the account, you file – your foreign financial interest triggers the report once the aggregate crosses $10,000.
2. If you only have signature authority over an account (an employer account, for example) but no financial interest, you may still file unless an FBAR exception applies.
3. If you hold joint accounts with a spouse, a parent, or a business partner, certain spouses may satisfy the filing requirements using the spouse-signature procedures described in the FBAR instructions when all eligibility requirements are met, but those rules are limited. A non-filing spouse's foreign account may still need to appear on your FBAR.

Based on the TFX client scenario, a US software engineer living in Berlin held a €9,500 checking account and a €4,000 brokerage account during 2025. Neither account exceeded $10,000 on its own, but the combined peak value crossed the threshold, so both accounts had to be reported on the 2025 FBAR filed in 2026.

Reporting threshold

The FBAR threshold is $10,000 in aggregate across all reportable foreign financial accounts at any single point during the calendar year. Once the combined maximum value crosses that line – even for one day – every reportable account must be included on the FBAR for that year.

The aggregation rule catches filers who assume the threshold applies per account. Three accounts of $4,000, $4,000, and $3,500 combine to $11,500, which crosses the line and triggers FBAR for all three accounts.

The threshold is based on the peak value of each account during the year, converted to US dollars using the Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange for December 31 of the reporting year.

One clarifier that trips up filers: the threshold is the combined maximum value across all reportable accounts, not each account tested separately.

Deadlines and extensions

For calendar year 2025, FBAR is due April 15, 2026, with an automatic extension to October 15, 2026 – no separate extension request is required.

The timeline:

• April 15, 2026 – standard FBAR due date, aligned with the federal income tax filing date.
• October 15, 2026 – automatic extension. No form is filed to request it; the extension applies to every filer who misses April 15.

If April 15 falls on a weekend or a federal holiday, the deadline shifts to the next business day. For background on the April 15 alignment with the tax return calendar, see the TFX summary of the FBAR April 15 deadline change.

For how the FBAR extension differs from the Form 1040 extension, see our guide on filing a tax extension – the two follow different mechanics even though both end on October 15.

Two practical notes:

• File early if account statements are hard to gather; some foreign banks take weeks to produce year-end confirmations.
• The FBAR extension is not tied to Form 4868. You can file your tax return on time and file FBAR later, or vice versa.

Penalties for non-compliance

FBAR civil penalties are adjusted annually for inflation based on the date of assessment. The non-willful maximum is $16,536 per annual report, and the willful maximum is the greater of $165,353 or 50% of the balance in the account at the time of the violation. Refer to the current FinCEN civil penalty schedule for the applicable amounts at the time of assessment.

Criminal penalties are possible in severe cases.

The current structure:

• Non-willful violations – up to $16,536 per annual report (inflation-adjusted).
• Willful violations – the greater of $165,353 or 50% of the balance in the account at the time of the violation, for penalties assessed on or after January 17, 2025; criminal penalties may also apply.
• Criminal exposure – possible in extreme cases involving intentional concealment; charges are separate from civil penalties.

Filers who reported and paid all US tax on the foreign account income but missed the FBAR may qualify for the Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures if the IRS has not contacted them about an examination or delinquent returns.

Taxpayers who satisfy all eligibility requirements for the Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures generally will not be subject to an FBAR penalty under current IRS guidance; filers must include an explanation for filing late.

The Supreme Court's decision in Bittner v. United States established that non-willful FBAR penalties apply per annual report rather than per account. Current IRS examination guidance reflects this interpretation.

Two important limits:

• The Delinquent FBAR path is not available if the IRS has already contacted you about the delinquent FBARs, or if you are under civil examination or criminal investigation.
• The Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures cover a broader fact pattern – late tax returns and late FBARs together – for non-willful cases.

For a deeper look at the penalty framework, see our guide to the full FBAR penalty structure; for why quiet filings are riskier than the streamlined path, see our breakdown of why quiet disclosure carries more risk than the streamlined path.

Our CPAs handle Streamlined and Delinquent FBAR submissions.

Learn more

FATCA filing requirements

FATCA – the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act – requires specified individuals and specified domestic entities to report specified foreign financial assets on Form 8938, filed as an attachment to the annual income tax return. Unlike FBAR, Form 8938 is not a standalone filing; it travels with your Form 1040.

Specified foreign financial assets reach further than bank accounts. They include foreign financial accounts plus non-account holdings like foreign stock and securities held directly, interests in foreign partnerships, foreign trust interests, and certain foreign insurance or annuity contracts with cash value.

FBAR and FATCA reporting overlaps on foreign financial accounts but diverges on non-account holdings – Form 8938 sees more of what expats own abroad than FBAR does.

For how the FATCA regime works on 1099 forms issued by US brokerages, see our guide on what the FATCA filing requirement box on your 1099 means. The full mechanics are covered in the Form 8938 instructions and in our detailed breakdown of how Form 8938 works in practice.

The two forms operate under different agencies and different thresholds, so a filer can cross one line without crossing the other. That is why the "do I file both?" question comes up so often – and gets its own section below.

Who must file, and how the filing thresholds work

Two groups file Form 8938: specified individuals (US citizens, resident aliens, and certain nonresident aliens who are otherwise required to file a return) and specified domestic entities (certain closely held US corporations, partnerships, and trusts that meet the regulatory requirements, including the passive income/assets tests).

Filing is required once specified foreign financial assets cross the applicable threshold for filing status and residency.

The thresholds for tax year 2025 (unchanged from prior years):

For Form 8938 threshold purposes, living abroad generally means your tax home is in a foreign country and you meet either the bona fide residence test for an uninterrupted period that includes the entire tax year, or the physical presence test of at least 330 full days in a foreign country or countries during a 12-month period ending in the tax year.

The higher expat thresholds recognize that Americans living abroad routinely hold larger foreign balances for ordinary reasons like local pensions and property proceeds.

Based on the TFX client scenario, a married US couple retired in Portugal held combined foreign brokerage and pension assets of $450,000 on December 31, 2025. They were below the $600,000 any-time threshold but above the $400,000 year-end threshold, so Form 8938 was required for tax year 2025 filed in 2026.

Which asset types are included

Specified foreign financial assets cover both accounts and non-account holdings. Filing Form 8938 does not exempt you from filing FBAR – some assets appear on both, some on only one.

Included on Form 8938:

• foreign bank accounts, brokerage accounts, and custodial accounts
• foreign pension and retirement arrangements may be reportable on Form 8938 depending on the legal structure of the arrangement and the applicable IRS reporting rules; foreign government Social Security-type benefits are not reportable on Form 8938 or FBAR
• foreign stock and securities held directly (not inside a foreign financial account)
• interests in foreign partnerships and foreign trusts
• foreign mutual funds and pooled investment products (which may also be PFICs – see our guide to foreign mutual funds and PFICs)
• foreign life insurance or annuity contracts with cash value

Not reportable on Form 8938:

• directly held foreign real estate (a personal residence or rental property is not a specified foreign financial asset, though an interest in a foreign entity that holds real estate is)
• physically held foreign currency
• personal-use tangible assets (art, jewelry, cars)
• for specified individuals, assets reported on Forms 3520, 3520-A, 5471, 8621, or 8865 still count toward the Form 8938 threshold – you cross-reference them in Part IV instead of reporting details twice. Specified domestic entities generally exclude those assets from the threshold calculation

Foreign stock held inside a foreign financial account is reported as the account, not as separate stock holdings.

Deadlines

Form 8938 is filed with Form 1040. For tax year 2025, that means April 15, 2026, for filers in the US, with the automatic 2-month extension to June 15, 2026, for qualifying taxpayers abroad, and further extension to October 15, 2026, if Form 4868 is filed on time.

The timeline:

• April 15, 2026 – standard due date for Form 1040 and Form 8938.
• June 15, 2026 – automatic 2-month extension for US citizens and resident aliens whose tax home and abode are outside the US on April 15.
• October 15, 2026 – available if Form 4868 is filed by the June 15 deadline for qualifying expats or by April 15 for US-based filers.

Because Form 8938 attaches to the return, its extension follows the tax return extension automatically. There is no separate Form 8938 extension request. For how Form 1040 is organized and what attaches to it, see our guide on how Form 1040 is structured.

If you file the return late, Form 8938 penalties may apply independently of any income tax owed.

Penalties for non-compliance

The base Form 8938 penalty is $10,000 for failure to file when required. Additional $10,000 charges apply for each 30-day period after IRS notice, capped at $50,000 – bringing the combined maximum to $60,000 before any tax-related penalties are added.

Beyond the filing penalty:

• Accuracy penalty – 40% of any underpayment tied to a non-disclosed specified foreign financial asset.
• Extended assessment period – failure to provide required Form 8938 information can extend the statute of limitations under IRC §6501(c)(8), subject to the rules and exceptions in that provision; omitting more than $5,000 of gross income tied to reportable assets can extend the period to six years.

The IRS comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR requirements breaks down how the two penalty tracks differ. The Form 8938 instructions cover the continuation and accuracy-penalty mechanics in detail.

A missed Form 8938 from a prior year generally requires filing an amended return on Form 1040-X with the corrected Form 8938 attached, unless the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures apply. FATCA penalties for continued non-compliance grow quickly once the IRS sends notice, so acting before contact is the cheaper path.

Our team handles FATCA reporting and Streamlined submissions.

Learn more

Do you need to file both FBAR and FATCA?

Many US expats need both. The two regimes apply on parallel tracks – FBAR when foreign accounts cross $10,000 aggregate at any time, and Form 8938 when specified foreign financial assets cross the Form 8938 threshold for filing status and residency. Filing one does not satisfy the other.

The three questions that decide it:

1. Do you own or have signature authority over a foreign financial account? If yes, FBAR is on the table.
2. Does the aggregate value of your foreign accounts cross $10,000 at any point during the year? If yes, FBAR is required.
3. Does the total value of your specified foreign financial assets cross the Form 8938 threshold for your filing status and residency? If yes, Form 8938 is required with your return.

For the wider picture of what US persons abroad must disclose beyond these two forms, see our guide to the broader foreign assets disclosure picture and our direct comparison of the full FBAR vs. Form 8938 breakdown.

Cases where both are required

Both filings apply when foreign accounts cross the $10,000 FBAR line and total specified foreign financial assets cross the Form 8938 threshold that fits your filing status and residency.

Three common expat profiles:

• Single filer abroad, mid-value assets – foreign accounts totaling $15,000 during the year and total specified assets above $200,000 at year-end. Both FBAR and Form 8938 required.
• Married filing jointly abroad, higher assets – foreign accounts of $50,000 during the year and total specified assets above $400,000 at year-end. Both required.
• US resident single filer with foreign accounts and investments – foreign accounts of $12,000 during the year and total specified assets above $50,000 at year-end. Both required, using the US-resident Form 8938 threshold.

The overlap in a two-column view:

For when Form 8938 filing is not triggered even though foreign assets exist, see our guide on when Form 8938 filing is not triggered.

Cases where only one applies

FBAR alone applies when foreign accounts cross $10,000 but total specified assets stay below the Form 8938 threshold. Form 8938 alone can apply when your specified foreign financial assets cross the threshold but your foreign accounts do not cross $10,000, or when the reportable assets are non-account holdings such as directly held foreign stock or a foreign partnership interest.

Thresholds and asset types both matter – a filer can cross one and not the other in the same year.

FBAR vs. FATCA decision guide

A 3-step check clarifies the FBAR / FATCA difference in filing terms and shows whether you file one form, the other, or both for the 2025 tax year:

1. What do you hold? Foreign financial account, non-account foreign asset, or both. Bank, brokerage, and similar accounts are FBAR territory; directly held stock, partnership interests, and foreign trust interests are Form 8938 territory (accounts also count for Form 8938).
2. Does the value cross the threshold? FBAR is a single $10,000 aggregate line. Form 8938 uses a threshold matched to your filing status and residency, from $50,000 up to $600,000.
3. How is it filed? FBAR goes to FinCEN separately via BSA E-Filing. Form 8938 attaches to your Form 1040 and goes to the IRS.

FBAR and FATCA filing requirements cover different assets under different agencies, so this table maps four common expat profiles to the decision:

For US expats with foreign accounts over $10,000, FBAR is generally required. Form 8938 is required only if total specified foreign financial assets also exceed the threshold for the filer's residency and filing status.

Unsure what to file? Get professional guidance

FBAR and Form 8938 have different filing triggers, so a quick review of your accounts and assets can confirm which forms apply and whether prior years need catch-up filings.

A professional review typically confirms three things:

• Which forms apply for the current tax year based on your account list and asset values.
• Whether any prior year triggered a filing that was missed – and if so, which correction path (Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures, Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures, or amendment) fits the facts.
• What documents to gather – account statements, year-end balances, and asset valuations – before filing.

Most expat filers benefit from working with a specialist for two reasons: the interaction of FBAR, Form 8938, and other international information returns (Forms 3520, 5471, 8621, 8865) is easier to miss than to catch, and prior-year corrections require a specific procedural path that is worth getting right the first time.

For a longer discussion, see our note on why expat filers often benefit from professional preparation.

TFX has prepared FBAR and Form 8938 filings for over 50,000 clients since 2001, including thousands of Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedure submissions for expats catching up on prior years.

Confused between FBAR and FATCA rules? Get a quick filing check today.

Schedule my free intro consultation

Related articles

Mel Whitney • Jul 10, 2026

FBAR vs. Form 8938: A detailed guide to key differences and filing thresholds (2026)

Compare FBAR vs Form 8938, learn who files each form, review thresholds and deadlines, and avoid costly foreign asset reporting mistakes.

Read more

Mel Whitney • Mar 30, 2026

FBAR filing requirements and deadlines in 2026

Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR): all the details to know about the deadlines, requirements and the processes in one guide.

Read more

Mel Whitney • Apr 27, 2026

Am I exempt from FATCA reporting? Rules, exemptions & filing requirements (2026)

Not sure if you’re exempt from FATCA reporting? Learn who must file Form 8938, what assets count, FATCA exemption rules, and when reporting is not required.

Read more