What is the difference between the FBAR and Form 8938?
The FBAR and Form 8938 are separate reports that can cover the same accounts. Form 8938 is filed with your income tax return and reports specified foreign financial assets. The FBAR is FinCEN Form 114, filed electronically with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network rather than the IRS. Filing one does not satisfy the other, and their thresholds differ.
Key points
- Form 8938 is attached to the annual income tax return and is due with that return including extensions, while the FBAR is filed separately through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System and is not filed with a tax return.
- Filing Form 8938 does not replace or affect the obligation to file FinCEN Form 114, and the same account can be reportable on both.
- Form 8938 reporting thresholds vary by filing status and by whether the filer lives inside or outside the United States, so the current figures should be read from the IRS comparison chart.
- An account at a foreign branch of a US financial institution is reportable on the FBAR but not on Form 8938, and foreign partnership interests and foreign stock held outside an account are reportable on Form 8938 but not the FBAR.
- Foreign real estate, foreign currency, and precious metals held directly are outside both the FBAR and Form 8938 reporting requirements.
What does each form report?
Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets, reports the maximum value of specified foreign financial assets, which include financial accounts at foreign financial institutions and certain foreign non-account investment assets. It is filed by specified individuals — US citizens, resident aliens, and certain non-resident aliens — and by specified domestic entities such as certain domestic corporations, partnerships, and trusts.
FinCEN Form 114, the FBAR, reports the maximum value of financial accounts maintained by a financial institution physically located in a foreign country. It is filed by US persons, a group that includes citizens, resident aliens, trusts, estates, and domestic entities. US territories are treated differently under the two rules: resident aliens of US territories and territory entities are subject to FBAR reporting, while the territories are outside the Form 8938 definition of the United States.
Where is each form filed, and when is it due?
This is the difference worth memorising. Form 8938 is attached to your annual income tax return and is due on the date of that return, including any applicable extensions. The FBAR is not filed with the IRS. It is filed directly with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a Treasury bureau separate from the IRS, through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System, and it is received by April 15 with a six-month automatic extension to October 15.
Because the two filings travel to different places on different systems, a complete and accurate income tax return tells you nothing about whether the FBAR was filed. That gap is where most unfiled FBARs come from, and it is worth confirming each year rather than assuming the return covered it.
Which assets appear on one form but not the other?
The overlap is large but not complete. Deposit and custodial accounts at foreign financial institutions, foreign mutual funds, and foreign-issued life insurance or annuity contracts with a cash value are reportable on both. An account held at a foreign branch of a US financial institution is reportable on the FBAR only, and an account at a US branch of a foreign financial institution is outside both.
Form 8938 reaches assets the FBAR does not: foreign stock or securities held outside a financial account, foreign partnership interests, and foreign hedge funds and private equity funds. The FBAR reaches situations Form 8938 does not: signature authority over an account you have no interest in, and indirect interests held through an entity where the ownership or beneficial interest is large enough. Foreign real estate held directly, foreign currency held directly, and precious metals held directly are outside both, as are personal items such as art, jewellery, and cars.
Does filing one form satisfy the other?
It does not. The IRS states directly that the Form 8938 filing requirement does not replace or otherwise affect a taxpayer's obligation to file FinCEN Form 114. Individuals and domestic entities are expected to check the requirements and the reporting thresholds of each form and work out whether they should file Form 8938, the FBAR, or both.
The thresholds are genuinely different and the Form 8938 threshold is not one number: it varies with filing status and with whether you live inside or outside the United States, and it is tested both on the last day of the tax year and at any time during the year. The IRS comparison chart carries the current figures for each form, and that is the source to check rather than a remembered amount. Penalties exist under both regimes for failing to disclose and criminal penalties may also apply. The Form 8938 penalty additionally increases for each 30 days a failure continues after IRS notice, while the FBAR civil maximums turn on whether the violation was willful and are adjusted annually for inflation, so the safer habit is to run both tests every year.
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