Here’s something that almost nobody knows about. And it’s an important topic.
If you’re a US taxpayer, you know that the Foreign Bank Account Report or FBAR is one of the numerous forms from a stack of compliance documents that the US government demands.
We’ve talked at length about it previously, not least in the June issue of Sovereign Confidential where we went through the form step by step. But now, filing of an FBAR is changing. Starting next year the form will have to be filed electronically.
Just recently, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) held a webinar intended to provide instructions how the new electronic filing of an FBAR will look like.
Hardly anyone else even heard about this. I know this for a fact because when I was talking to some of my professional colleagues about it, they had no clue. In fact, almost everyone in the ‘business’ is still referring to the FBAR as the paper form TDF 90-22.1. This is incorrect… and bad information now.
Fortunately, I personally sat for two hours on the FinCEN’s webinar, listening to the technical details and procedures required to be able to file the new FBAR. I must imagine I was about the only person actually tuning in.
But I do these things that few others are willing to do, or even know about, so that you don’t have to.
So, let’s review first who has to file an FBAR:
