What happens if I never filed an FBAR?
The report stays outstanding and the exposure sits with FinCEN, under a penalty regime of its own which is not the one that applies to a late tax return or to a late Form 8938. That is the first thing to take in, because there are two regimes here and the answer for one report tells you nothing about the other. The second is that this report is not a tax return, so having no tax to pay does not remove it, or the charge for its absence. What decides how a catch-up is handled is usually whether the omission was inadvertent, and that is a question about the facts of your own file.
Is the penalty for a late Form 8938 the same as for a late FBAR?
No. Different agency, different form, different due date and different penalty regime. The two reports overlap in content and share nothing in their enforcement. Form 8938 is part of the income tax return, so its absence is a defect in the return itself. The FBAR is a separate filing to FinCEN, and its absence is a defect in a report that has nothing to do with the return. A single catch-up therefore runs on two tracks, often with different look-backs and different documents, and the work is easier if it is planned as two jobs from the start.
I filed my late FBARs, is the Form 8938 problem fixed?
No, and the returns are where the remaining work sits. Satisfying one report does nothing for the other, so the late account reports leave every year whose return should have carried the statement still defective. Those years are corrected through the return rather than through a fresh report, which usually means amending returns already filed rather than submitting something new. Whether the two catch-ups cover the same years is worth checking early, because they often do not, and the first job is then to work out which years belong to which track.
I was over the FBAR threshold but under the Form 8938 one, what do I file?
Only the report whose threshold you crossed. The account aggregate test is US$10,000 at any time in the calendar year, on the IRS figures verified in August 2026, while the specified asset thresholds start far higher, at US$50,000 on the last day of the tax year for an unmarried filer in the United States and higher again for joint filers and for those living abroad. So a filer with modest balances routinely has years of missing account reports and no Form 8938 obligation at all. Test each year separately, because the thresholds are annual and one year does not settle the rest.
How many years of late FBARs do I have to catch up?
It depends on the route rather than on how long the accounts have existed. Each year is its own report, and the number of years filed in a catch-up is generally set by the terms of the approach used rather than chosen by the filer. Which routes are open turns on the facts, principally whether the failure was inadvertent, and on whether anybody has already been in touch about it. So the first step is a year-by-year schedule of account balances against the threshold, which shows how many years are genuinely in scope before any route is chosen.
Can I be penalised for a late report if I owed no tax?
Yes. Neither report is a tax return, and neither penalty regime is calculated from tax owing, which is why filers with nothing to pay are surprised to find an exposure at all. It is the report that is late, and the charge attaches to that. The practical consequence is that a quiet year with small balances and no tax still needs its filing, and the cheapest moment to deal with it is before anybody asks. A year with no tax is also the simplest to file, because the only thing to establish is the balances themselves.
What is the difference between FBAR and Form 8938?
They overlap but are not the same report. The FBAR goes to FinCEN and covers foreign financial *accounts*; Form 8938 goes to the IRS with the return and covers a wider class of specified foreign financial *assets*, with thresholds that vary by filing status and whether you live abroad. Many people must file both for the same accounts, and satisfying one does nothing for the other. See filing both.
Do Canada and the United States share tax information?
Yes, through more than one channel. The treaty has an exchange-of-information article that supports both routine and on-request exchange. Separately, an intergovernmental agreement has Canadian financial institutions identify US-reportable accounts and report them to the CRA, which passes them to the IRS, with the reverse flow for Canadian residents. Most other country pairs use the Common Reporting Standard for the same purpose. See FATCA reporting.
