FBAR vs Form 8938
Different agency, different form, different threshold, different asset list — most cross-border filers owe both, with different contents on each.
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Different agency, different form, different threshold, different asset list — most cross-border filers owe both, with different contents on each.
Side by side
| FBAR (FinCEN 114) | Form 8938 (FATCA) | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed with | FinCEN, electronically and separately | The IRS, attached to the tax return |
| What it covers | Foreign financial accounts | Specified foreign financial assets, which reach beyond accounts |
| Threshold basis | One aggregate test across all accounts | Varies with filing status and whether you live abroad, tested two ways |
| Signature authority | Counts, even over someone else's account | Generally not, absent a financial interest |
| Penalty regime | Its own, under the financial-crimes statute | Its own, under the tax code |
Which one applies to you
Satisfying one does nothing for the other. Work through both tests separately on the same account list, then file whichever each one requires — which for most filers abroad is both.
Your next step
Describe the situation in your own words; translating it into forms is our job.
Reviewed for the 2025 and 2026 filing seasons by Udit Gupta, Cross-Border Tax Expert, Legal Quotient Consultants. Published as general information. For a position on your own file, call the 24-hour helpline.
FBAR form — what this page covers
The subject here is FBAR vs Form 8938, which is what people mean when they search for FBAR form. This page covers who it applies to, the filings it produces, and the fixed fee agreed before work begins.
People also search for: fbar forms · fincen form 114 fbar · fbar and fincen · fbar fincen 114 · form 114 fbar.
Why clients bring FBAR vs form 8938 to us
We say early if it is not our work
If a file needs something this practice does not do, you hear that at the start rather than after a bill.
The fee is fixed before we start
Quoted from your documents and agreed in writing. The number you accept is the number you pay.
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.
Every figure on a page is traceable
Where a rate or a threshold appears in our writing it names the tax year it belongs to. Where it could not be confirmed, the page describes the mechanism and quotes no number.
What these engagements turn on
Account reports filed for years, the asset statement never
A bank's letter had prompted years of account reports, all filed on time. The asset statement had never been filed, because the holdings were foreign-issued securities and an interest in a foreign company, held directly rather than through any account. The work was characterising each holding, establishing which years the statement was actually due for, and filing it with the returns for those years.
Signature authority over employer accounts holding none of the client's money
The client signed on several of the employer's accounts abroad and had a financial interest in none of them. Those accounts still entered the aggregate, so the account report covered the whole list while the asset statement did not reach them. The work was obtaining institution details and the yearly peak of each account from the employer, and recording on file why the two lists differ.
Joint accounts with a non-resident spouse, and two different tests
One spouse was a US person and the other was not, and most of the accounts were held jointly. Filing status moves the asset-statement thresholds but does nothing to the account aggregate, so the order of work mattered: settle the filing position for the year first, then run both tests across the same list. Both reports were filed, with different contents on each.
Crypto on a non-US exchange, where the two reports diverge
Part of the holding sat with an exchange outside the United States and part in a wallet the client controlled directly. Whether an exchange balance is a foreign financial account has been treated differently over time, so the answer depends on the year, and the asset statement is a separate question again. The engagement recorded the position taken for each year and the evidence behind it.
A mid-year peak the year-end statements did not show
Nothing in the December statements came near the reporting line. Sale proceeds had passed through two of the client's own accounts during the year, and the aggregate is tested at each account's highest point, which counts the same money twice when it moves. Rebuilding the maximum balance for every account from monthly statements, and fixing the conversion basis, is what established that the report was due.
Two missed reports that needed two different catch-up routes
The returns had been filed and the income fully reported; neither foreign-asset report ever had been. One report is lodged with the financial-crimes bureau on its own and the other exists only as part of a return, so the omissions needed separate remedies: a late account-report submission with a reasonable-cause statement, and amended returns carrying the asset statement.
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 Residency Determination Review After Leaving the Country
Residence is decided on ties, not on a form, and the review asks for evidence of every one of them. The file assembles the ties that were severed and the ones that remained, and answers the questionnaire against the treaty rather than around it.
Read how this one runsAll case studies — every published engagement in one place.
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Performance income is taxed where earned — Regulation 105 in Canada, withholding agreements in the U.S. — with special treaty articles overriding the usual rules.
Performance income is taxed where the performance happens, and the deduction is usually taken at source on the gross fee before expenses. Recovering the difference is a filing exercise in the other country, and it only works if the tour, the residency and the withholding certificates were documented while the work was being done.
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