FBAR Deadline: When FinCEN 114 Is Due and the Automatic Extension

10/3/2026

The FBAR is the filing clients forget because it is not a tax return. It does not go to the IRS with the 1040, it is not on most organizers unless someone added it, and the person who needs to file it often does not think of a modest account abroad as "foreign financial accounts." It is also a filing where the penalties can far exceed any tax at stake.

The FBAR deadline itself is simple: April 15, with an automatic extension to October 15. The hard part is everything around the date. Who counts as a U.S. person, how the $10,000 test is applied, what signature authority means, how it overlaps with Form 8938, and what to do when a client turns up with several years of unfiled reports. This post works through each one from the practitioner's side, using the IRS's and FinCEN's own descriptions of the rules.

The FBAR Deadline and the Automatic Extension

The Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts is FinCEN Form 114. It is filed with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network under the Bank Secrecy Act, not with the IRS, although the IRS enforces it.

According to the IRS's FBAR page:

The FBAR is due April 15 following the calendar year being reported.
Filers get an automatic extension to October 15. No request is needed and no form is filed for it.

The automatic extension is the single most misunderstood feature of the FBAR. For calendar years before 2016, the FBAR had a June 30 due date and no extension, and many clients (and some preparers) still remember the "June 30 FBAR." That date no longer applies. A client who extends the 1040 does not need to do anything extra for the FBAR; it is extended automatically, separately from the tax return.

Two practical consequences:

October 15 is the real outside date. Treat October 15 as the final deadline for any client who has not filed, and get the FBAR filed alongside the extended 1040 at the latest. Our October 15 extension guide covers the rest of that season's work; add the FBAR to that list for every client with foreign accounts.

The extension does not depend on the tax return. A client whose 1040 is filed on time in April still has until October 15 for the FBAR. That flexibility helps when foreign statements arrive late, but do not let it turn into a forgotten task once the return is out the door.

Signature-authority relief for certain employees

FinCEN has repeatedly extended the filing deadline for one narrow group: certain employees and officers of regulated entities (such as U.S. public companies and financial institutions) who have signature or other authority over, but no financial interest in, foreign accounts of their employer. The most recent notice, FIN-2025-NTC3 (December 2025), extended the deadline for that group to April 15, 2027. FinCEN has said it keeps renewing the relief because proposed regulations on signature authority, issued in 2016, have not been finalized.

This relief is narrow. It does not cover an individual's own accounts, and it does not cover someone with signature authority over a family member's or a small business's account outside the listed categories. Read the notice before relying on it for a client.

Disaster relief

When the IRS postpones deadlines for a federally declared disaster area, FinCEN has in several cases granted matching FBAR relief, but it does so by its own notice. Do not assume an IRS disaster postponement automatically covers the FBAR; check for a FinCEN announcement.

Who Must File: U.S. Persons and the $10,000 Aggregate Test

U.S. persons

The IRS describes the filer as a U.S. person, which includes a citizen, a resident, and a domestic corporation, partnership, limited liability company, trust or estate. "Resident" follows the tax residency rules, so a green card holder or someone meeting the substantial presence test is a U.S. person for FBAR purposes. That is how many first-year residents miss the filing: their home-country accounts become reportable the first year they are resident.

Entities are filers too. A U.S. LLC with a foreign operating account, a domestic trust with an account abroad, and an estate holding a decedent's foreign account all have their own FBAR obligations, separate from those of their owners or beneficiaries.

Financial interest or signature authority

A U.S. person files if they have a financial interest in, or signature or other authority over, foreign financial accounts. Financial interest covers accounts held in the person's own name, and also accounts held through certain entities they own more than 50% of and certain nominee and agent arrangements. Signature authority covers the bookkeeper or controller who can move money from a client's or employer's foreign account even though they own none of it.

Foreign financial accounts include bank, securities and other financial accounts located outside the United States, including accounts at a foreign branch of a U.S. bank. The IRS's comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR requirements highlights that this foreign-branch point is a difference from Form 8938.

The $10,000 aggregate test

The IRS states the threshold this way: an FBAR is required when the aggregate value of the foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year.

Three things to explain to clients:

Aggregate means all accounts combined. Four accounts that never exceeded $3,000 each can still trigger the filing if, on one day, they totaled more than $10,000.
"At any time" means the maximum, not the year-end balance. A client who moved $15,000 through a foreign account for a week in March and closed it in April has to file, even though the year-end balance was zero.
Values are converted to U.S. dollars using the Treasury reporting rates of exchange for the last day of the calendar year, as the FBAR instructions describe, even when the maximum balance occurred earlier.

Once the threshold is met, every foreign account is reported, including ones that were small on their own.

Exceptions to keep in mind

The FBAR rules exclude or simplify reporting in several situations. Examples include owners and beneficiaries of certain U.S. retirement plans and IRAs as to accounts held by the plan, consolidated reporting by a parent entity for accounts of majority-owned subsidiaries, and abbreviated reporting for filers with a very large number of accounts. Each has specific conditions in the FinCEN instructions, and they should be checked rather than assumed.

How the FBAR Is Filed

The IRS page is direct on this: the FBAR is filed electronically through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System. Paper filing is permitted only with an exemption obtained in advance from FinCEN.

Points that come up in practice:

It is not part of the tax return. Some tax software can prepare and transmit the FBAR, but it is still a separate filing with FinCEN that gets its own acknowledgment. Keep that acknowledgment in the client file.
Spouses can file one FBAR in some cases. When all of the reportable accounts are jointly owned (or one spouse's accounts are all joint), spouses can file a single report, with FinCEN Form 114a signed to authorize it.
A preparer filing for a client also uses Form 114a, the record of authorization. The client keeps responsibility for the report's accuracy; the form documents that you were authorized to file it.
Records must be kept for five years from the FBAR's due date. Per the IRS, they include the account name, account number, the name and address of the institution, the type of account, and the maximum value during the year.

FBAR vs. Form 8938: Two Reports, Overlapping Facts

Form 8938 (Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets) comes from FATCA and is filed with the tax return. Many clients with foreign accounts need both, and filing one does not satisfy the other. The IRS's comparison chart sets out the differences:

	FBAR (FinCEN 114)	Form 8938
Filed with	FinCEN, via BSA E-Filing	The IRS, attached to the income tax return
Due	April 15, automatic extension to October 15	With the return, including extensions
Who	U.S. persons, including entities	Specified individuals and specified domestic entities
Threshold	Aggregate over $10,000 at any time	Higher thresholds, varying by filing status and residence
Covers	Financial accounts, including signature authority	Specified foreign financial assets, including some non-account assets

The Form 8938 thresholds, from the IRS comparison:

Taxpayer	Last day of the year	Any time during the year
Unmarried (or MFS), living in the U.S.	More than $50,000	More than $75,000
Married filing jointly, living in the U.S.	More than $100,000	More than $150,000
Unmarried (or MFS), living abroad	More than $200,000	More than $300,000
Married filing jointly, living abroad	More than $400,000	More than $600,000

The asset scope differs too. The IRS notes that Form 8938 reaches certain foreign financial assets held outside accounts, such as foreign partnership interests and foreign hedge and mutual fund interests, while the FBAR covers accounts at foreign branches of U.S. institutions that Form 8938 does not. The FBAR also reaches signature-authority-only accounts; Form 8938 is about assets the taxpayer has an interest in.

The practical takeaway: the FBAR threshold is far lower, so most clients who file Form 8938 also file an FBAR, but many FBAR filers never reach the Form 8938 thresholds.

Penalties: Why Framing Matters

The IRS describes FBAR penalties as civil monetary penalties and potentially criminal penalties, with maximum civil amounts set by Title 31 and adjusted annually for inflation. The IRS's comparison chart summarizes the civil structure as a non-willful penalty and a much larger willful penalty that can reach 50% of account balances. Because the dollar figures change every year, take them from the current IRS or FinCEN source when you need them.

Two framing points matter more than the numbers when you talk to a client:

Willful vs. non-willful. The willful penalty is far larger and can involve criminal exposure. Willfulness turns on the facts, including whether the client knew of the requirement or deliberately avoided knowing. That is a legal question, and a client with significant exposure should get legal advice before anything is filed.

Non-willful penalties are per report, not per account. In Bittner v. United States (2023), the Supreme Court held that the non-willful penalty applies per report, not per account. That limits exposure for the common case of a client with many small accounts who simply did not know about the filing. It does not limit the willful penalty.

Late or missed FBARs

Clients who discover they should have filed have options, and the right one depends on the facts. The IRS has published procedures for delinquent FBARs where all income was reported and taxed, and streamlined procedures for taxpayers whose failures were non-willful. Which one fits, and what it costs, depends on whether income from the accounts was reported, whether the client is under examination, and whether conduct could be seen as willful. A preparer should not pick a path for a client with willfulness questions without counsel involved.

Building the FBAR Into the Engagement

FBARs are missed in intake, not at filing time. The controls that work:

Ask the question every year. Your organizer and intake checklist should ask directly about foreign accounts, including accounts with signature authority only, accounts held by entities, and accounts closed during the year. Our individual tax return checklist is a good place to make sure that question appears.
Look at Schedule B. Schedule B (Form 1040), Part III asks about foreign accounts and points to the FBAR. A "yes" there with no FBAR in the file is a red flag for both the IRS and your reviewer.
Get maximum values, not year-end statements. Request each account's highest balance for the year, or statements for every month.
Calendar the FBAR separately. Put April 15 and October 15 on the client's deadline list as their own items, not as part of the 1040.
Get Form 114a signed before you file, and keep the BSA acknowledgment.
Flag new residents. Anyone who became a U.S. resident during the year needs the conversation about home-country accounts.

Training for Cross-Border Work

FBAR questions rarely come alone. The client with a foreign account often has foreign income, a residency question, treaty issues, or a family member who is a nonresident. The US Tax Considerations for Non-Resident Taxpayers Series covers the nonresident side of that work, which is where the residency questions that drive FBAR filing tend to start. Practitioners with employer clients that send staff abroad or hire on visas may also want IRS Rules for Work Visas and Payroll Rules for Inpat and Expat Payroll. For the rest of the information-return calendar, see our post on 1099 and W-2 filing deadlines.

Make the FBAR Part of the Calendar

The rule is short: April 15, automatically extended to October 15, filed electronically with FinCEN, for any U.S. person whose foreign accounts together topped $10,000 at any point in the year. The risk is that nobody asks. Put the question on the organizer, put the dates on the calendar, and keep the authorization and acknowledgment in the file.

If cross-border clients are a growing part of your practice, the US Tax Considerations for Non-Resident Taxpayers Series is a practical place to build that knowledge.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the FBAR due?

FinCEN Form 114 is due April 15 following the calendar year being reported. Every filer gets an automatic extension to October 15, with no request needed. The old June 30 due date with no extension no longer applies. A narrow group of employees with signature authority over, but no financial interest in, their employer's foreign accounts has a later deadline under a FinCEN notice, currently extended to April 15, 2027. Check that notice before applying it to anyone.

Do I need to file an extension for the FBAR?

No. The extension from April 15 to October 15 is automatic, and there is no form to file. It is also separate from the income tax return: extending the 1040 does not affect the FBAR, and filing the 1040 on time in April does not take away the FBAR's October date. Because no request is involved, it is easy to forget the FBAR after the return is filed, so calendar it as its own deadline.

How does the $10,000 FBAR threshold work?

A U.S. person must file if the combined maximum value of all their foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year. It is an aggregate test, so several small accounts can trigger it together, and it uses each account's highest balance, not the year-end balance. Values are converted to dollars using the Treasury reporting rate for the last day of the year. Once the threshold is exceeded, every foreign account must be reported, not only the larger ones.

Is the FBAR filed with the tax return?

No. The FBAR is filed electronically with FinCEN through the BSA E-Filing System, not with the IRS return, though some tax software can transmit it separately. Form 8938, a different foreign-asset report, is attached to the income tax return. Many taxpayers need both. A practitioner filing an FBAR for a client should have the client sign FinCEN Form 114a, and should keep the BSA filing acknowledgment in the file.

What is the difference between the FBAR and Form 8938?

The FBAR goes to FinCEN, covers foreign financial accounts including signature-authority-only accounts, and applies once accounts exceed $10,000 in total at any time. Form 8938 goes to the IRS with the tax return, covers specified foreign financial assets including some held outside accounts, and has higher thresholds that depend on filing status and residence, starting at more than $50,000 at year end or $75,000 at any time for an unmarried U.S. resident. Filing one does not satisfy the other.

What happens if a client missed prior FBARs?

It depends on the facts. The IRS has procedures for delinquent FBARs where all related income was reported, and streamlined procedures for non-willful failures. Since Bittner v. United States (2023), the non-willful penalty applies per report, not per account. Willful failures carry much larger penalties and possible criminal exposure. A client whose situation raises willfulness questions should get legal advice before any filing is made.