FBAR — account list template
The account list a US account report is built from, including the accounts people do not think of as theirs.
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The account list a US account report is built from, including the accounts people do not think of as theirs.
The document pack
- Every non-US bank account — current, savings, term deposit
- Every non-US investment and brokerage account
- Non-US pension and retirement accounts
- Accounts held jointly with a spouse, parent or business partner
- Accounts over which you hold signature authority but no money — employer or family accounts
- The maximum balance in each account at any point in the calendar year
- The institution name, address and account number for each
- The currency and the conversion basis used
Why each of these is asked for
Two items catch people: the maximum balance rather than the year-end balance, and signature authority over an account that is not yours. The test is the aggregate across everything on this list, so an account that looks too small to matter can be the one that crosses the line.
Your next step
Send what you have and we will tell you what is missing. A complete pack is usually the difference between a filing that takes a fortnight and one that takes a season. One call now is worth more than a filing season of guessing.
Read and approved for the 2025 and 2026 filing seasons by Udit Gupta, Cross-Border Tax Expert, Legal Quotient Consultants. General guidance only. Your own facts decide the answer, so bring them to a call before relying on this.
Where FBAR account comes into this file
The search that brings most people to this page is FBAR account. It is answered here for FBAR: what creates the obligation, which filings discharge it, and the fee agreed before the work starts.
Why clients bring FBAR — account list template to us
Late and missed years are ordinary work
An unfiled history is not a reason to wait longer. We assess what is still open and what relief the delay attracts before the first return goes in.
The quote comes from your documents
Nothing is priced from a phone call. We read what you have first, then the fee is set — so the scope and the number are agreed on the same evidence.
Filed with the authority, not just prepared
The engagement runs to submission and to the correspondence that follows it, including the queries that arrive months later.
You deal with the person who did the work
The practitioner who prepared and reviewed your file is the one who answers the question about it.
Cross-border tax case studies
Building an account list from scattered statements before a first report
The client had banked in several countries over a working life and held no single record of what was still open. We worked institution by institution, requesting statements for the whole calendar year rather than annual summaries, and reading each one for its highest point rather than its closing balance. Dormant term deposits and an old employer savings scheme came out of that exercise. The engagement produced a documented account list carrying institution details, maximum balances and the conversion basis recorded beside each entry, reproducible from the same papers if it is ever questioned.
Signature authority on an employer account found during onboarding
A finance manager came to us about her personal accounts and mentioned, late in the conversation, that she could authorise payments from her employer's operating account. She held none of the money and had never thought of it as hers. We documented the authority, its scope and the account's maximum balance for the year, and set out in writing why an account with no personal interest is still reportable. The work produced an account list covering the authority position and a short file note explaining the basis, so the question does not have to be argued again next year.
A joint account with a parent abroad and who reports what
Money had been left with a parent overseas in an account both names sat on, and the client assumed only the portion he had contributed mattered. We set out the position: the report describes the account rather than a share of it, so the full maximum balance belongs on his list as well as the other holder's. We gathered the institution details, confirmed when the second name had been added, and traced the highest balance during the year. The engagement produced a list both holders could work from and a written explanation of why the two figures overlap.
Reconstructing maximum balances where money moved between accounts
A client had moved a lump sum through several of his own accounts during the year, and every attempt at his list produced a different total. We took each account separately and found its own highest point rather than following the money, because the report asks what each account reached and not what was held overall. That gave a larger aggregate than he expected, and he wanted to know why. The work produced a reconciled list, a note explaining how the same funds can set a maximum in more than one account, and a filing position he could stand behind.
A dormant deposit that carried the aggregate over the threshold
The client's active accounts were modest and he was satisfied that no report was due. A term deposit opened years earlier and never touched since had not entered his thinking at all. Once it was added, the aggregate test looked quite different. We obtained the institution's statements for the calendar year, established the account's maximum balance and rebuilt the list around it. The engagement produced a complete account list and a written record of the aggregate test as it was applied, so the decision to report was documented at the time rather than reconstructed afterwards.
Documenting the conversion basis for a multi-currency brokerage account
A brokerage account held cash in more than one currency and the client had converted each holding on whichever rate he found first. Successive drafts of the list gave different answers, and the aggregate sat close enough to the threshold for the difference to decide whether anything was filed. We settled a single conversion basis, applied it to every account on the list, and recorded the source and the date beside each figure. The work produced an account list whose totals can be reproduced by someone else from the same documents, with a short method note kept alongside it.
Accounts Reported Late When the Income Already Was
Where the income was on the return and only the account report was missed, a narrow route allows late filing with a reason attached. It is open only while no income is unreported and no examination has begun, which is why it is checked first.
Read how this one runsA Foreign Property Form Filed Late, With Penalties Running Daily
The foreign asset return carries a penalty that accrues per day rather than per return, so the exposure grows quietly. Relief is discretionary and it is granted on the reasons given, which means the request is the work rather than the form.
Read how this one runsAll case studies — every published engagement in one place.
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Foreign property income and sales are taxed in both countries by default; Section 216, FIRPTA and treaty credits are the standing toolkit.
Property is taxed where it sits, which is the one rule no treaty overrides. What the treaty does decide is the credit, the rate on the rent and what happens on the sale — and the clearance certificate on a disposition is applied for before closing, not after the buyer has already held the money back.
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