also called FinCEN Form 114 · Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts
A US filing that Americans must submit reporting foreign financial accounts once their combined value crosses a threshold.
The FBAR is a US filing Americans must submit reporting their foreign financial accounts once the combined value crosses a certain threshold. It is separate from your tax return and separate from FATCA, and the penalties for not filing can be harsh even when you owe no tax at all. What catches people is that it applies to ordinary foreign bank accounts, not just exotic ones.
You are American and open a normal checking account abroad to handle local rent and bills, never thinking of yourself as hiding anything. Because your accounts together cross the reporting threshold, you owed an FBAR, and missing it can bite even though there was no tax to pay.
Penalties for not filing can be severe even when no tax is owed, and it catches ordinary foreign bank accounts.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
These are the systems that report bank accounts to tax authorities, mostly aimed at Americans.
FATCA is the US law making foreign banks report American account holders, and FBAR is the separate filing Americans themselves submit on their foreign accounts once the total crosses a threshold.
CRS is the wider international version where countries swap account data automatically, and Streamlined Filing Procedures is the US amnesty for people who innocently failed to file.
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