Form 8938 vs FBAR: Which to File, or Both?

Two Different Forms, Two Different Agencies

The FBAR and Form 8938 get confused constantly, because they both ask about foreign money and they both punish you for staying quiet. But they are two entirely separate rules. The FBAR is the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, officially FinCEN Form 114. It is a Treasury filing under the Bank Secrecy Act, and it goes to FinCEN through its own e-file system. It never rides along with your tax return. Form 8938, the Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets, comes from a different law (the one known as FATCA) and is attached right to your Form 1040.

Different agency, different form, different starting line, different penalty. The single most important thing to understand is this: filing one does not satisfy the other. The IRS treats them as serving separate purposes, so when both apply you file both, even for the exact same foreign account. Below we walk through each threshold, what each form actually reaches, why so many people file both, and the penalties for getting it wrong.

The FBAR: When $10,000 Triggers It

The FBAR has the lower trigger of the two, and it catches a lot of people who think their accounts are too small to matter. You have to file if the combined value of all your foreign financial accounts topped $10,000 at any single moment during the calendar year. Three details do the damage:

• It is an aggregate, not per account. Two accounts at $6,000 each add up to $12,000, so both must be reported, even though neither alone crosses $10,000.
• It is the high point, not the year-end balance. If a foreign account hit $15,000 in March and you emptied it by December, you still had an FBAR obligation for that year.
• Signature authority counts. If you can sign on a foreign account you do not own, you may have to file even with no money of your own in it.

A foreign account covers more than a checking account. It reaches foreign brokerage and securities accounts, foreign mutual funds, and even foreign cash-value life insurance or annuity policies. If you have lived or worked abroad, or you have family money sitting in a foreign bank, assume the FBAR is in play until you confirm otherwise.

Form 8938: Higher Thresholds That Shift

Form 8938 starts at a higher number than the FBAR, and the number itself moves depending on your filing status and where you live. There is no single threshold, which is why people guess wrong. Here is the grid:

• Single or married filing separately, living in the US: more than $50,000 at year-end, or more than $75,000 at any time during the year.
• Married filing jointly, living in the US: more than $100,000 at year-end, or more than $150,000 anytime.
• Single or married filing separately, living abroad: more than $200,000 at year-end, or more than $300,000 anytime.
• Married filing jointly, living abroad: more than $400,000 at year-end, or more than $600,000 anytime.

So an American living in Israel files Form 8938 only once foreign assets pass $200,000 (single) or $400,000 (a couple), but that same person still owes the FBAR the moment accounts top $10,000. The two trigger at very different points, and that mismatch is exactly why you can owe one without the other, or both at once.

What Each Form Reaches That the Other Misses

It would be simpler if the two forms covered the same things at different thresholds. They do not. Each one reaches assets the other leaves out.

Form 8938 reaches some assets that are not in an account at all. It is built around ownership of specified foreign financial assets, so it captures things like foreign stock or securities you hold directly, an interest in a foreign partnership, or a financial contract with a foreign issuer. The FBAR is built around accounts, so a stock certificate of a foreign company sitting in your desk drawer is not an FBAR item but can be a Form 8938 item.

The FBAR reaches accounts you only sign on. If you have signature authority over a foreign account you do not own, an employer account, a parent company's account, or a charity's account, the FBAR applies to you. Form 8938 does not, because it tracks what you own, not what you can sign for. The FBAR also catches accounts at its lower $10,000 line that never come near the Form 8938 threshold. Neither form is a substitute for the other, and the gaps run in both directions.

FBAR vs Form 8938, Side by Side

Here is the whole comparison in one place. When in doubt, run your situation against every row, not just the threshold.

Why You Often File Both for the Same Account

Here is the part that surprises people. A single foreign brokerage account can land on both forms at once. Say a single filer living in the US has one foreign account that peaked at $90,000 during the year. That clears the FBAR line of $10,000, so an FBAR is due. It also clears the Form 8938 line of $50,000 year-end or $75,000 anytime, so Form 8938 is due too. The same account, the same money, reported twice, in two places, to two agencies.

This is not a glitch or double-counting. The two regimes are independent by design, and the IRS has been explicit that one filing does not cover the other. The danger is a half-fix: people who hear about the FBAR, file it, and never realize Form 8938 was also required. That leaves them exposed on the form they skipped, and as the next section explains, a missed Form 8938 carries a consequence that does not fade with time. When foreign accounts are in your life, map every account against both forms, not just the one you happened to learn about first.

The Penalties: $10,000 and Up, Each

Both forms carry real teeth, and they bite differently.

The FBAR. A non-willful miss, an honest mistake, is capped at $16,536 for each yearly form. The Supreme Court confirmed in 2023 that this is per form, per year, not per account, which keeps small-account mistakes manageable. A willful miss is in another league: the greater of about $165,353 or half the highest account balance, charged per account, per year. On a large account over several years, that climbs into the millions.

Form 8938. The penalty starts at $10,000 for the failure to file. If the failure continues for more than 90 days after the IRS mails notice, it then adds $10,000 for each additional 30-day period, up to $50,000 more. On top of that, if the missing form is tied to underreported income, a steeper accuracy penalty can apply to the tax involved.

And there is the quiet trap. When a required Form 8938 is never filed, the IRS clock that normally closes that tax year never starts. It stays open until you finally file, plus three more years. So a return from years ago can still be examined in full, not just the foreign asset, until the form goes in. The FBAR does not do this; it runs on its own separate six-year clock. If a penalty notice has already arrived, see our guide on FBAR penalties and how they are reduced.

How We Fix a Missed Filing, and When We Co-Counsel

If you are reading this because you already missed a year or several, the honest news is that this is common and usually fixable, as long as you do not panic-file the back forms quietly. The IRS already receives much of this account data from foreign banks under information-sharing agreements, so a silent late filing can read as concealment and make the situation worse. The right path is a formal cleanup program. For honest, non-willful mistakes, the Streamlined procedures can bring you current with a zero penalty (if you have been living abroad) or a modest percentage (if you have been living in the US). We screen the facts first, pick the program that fits, and build the supporting statement around your story.

A straightforward dual-filing cleanup for foreign accounts is handled here, on a fee quoted up front once we see the facts. For large multi-year cleanups, willful exposure, foreign trusts, or layered offshore structures, we co-counsel with an international tax advisor so you get the right depth without paying for the wrong tool. Almost all of this is done remotely, by phone and video, which fits clients who are out of state or out of the country. Our international and cross-border hub maps how the FBAR, FATCA, and the trust and gift forms fit together.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The one account, two forms. A single professional in Florida keeps a foreign brokerage account that peaked near $90,000 during the year. She files the FBAR after reading about it online, then learns from us that the account also crossed the Form 8938 line and belonged on her 1040. We file the missing 8938 and confirm her FBAR was correct, closing both gaps at once.

The American in Israel. A US citizen living in Tel Aviv has about $150,000 spread across Israeli bank and pension accounts. He is over the FBAR's $10,000 line but under the $200,000 Form 8938 threshold for someone living abroad. So he owes the FBAR but not the 8938, and we file the years he missed through the Streamlined procedures, where the penalty for a non-resident is zero.

The signature-only surprise. A client can sign on her employer's foreign operating account but owns none of it. She assumed neither form applied. In fact the FBAR reaches that signature authority, while Form 8938 does not, because she has no ownership. We file the FBAR for the open years and document why the 8938 was never required.

Sources of Law

• FBAR authority and $10,000 aggregate threshold: 31 U.S.C. §5314; 31 C.F.R. §1010.350 (financial interest and signature authority; aggregate over $10,000 at any point in the year).
• FBAR penalties: 31 U.S.C. §5321(a)(5); 31 C.F.R. §1010.821 (inflation-adjusted figures, January 2025: non-willful $16,536 per form, willful the greater of $165,353 or 50% of the highest balance per account per year); per-form non-willful rule per Bittner v. United States, 598 U.S. 85 (2023). 6-year assessment period: 31 U.S.C. §5321(b)(1). irs.gov FBAR
• Form 8938 (FATCA): IRC §6038D; Treas. Reg. §1.6038D-2 (thresholds: single or married filing separately in the US, $50,000 year-end or $75,000 anytime; married filing jointly in the US, $100,000 or $150,000; single or married filing separately abroad, $200,000 or $300,000; married filing jointly abroad, $400,000 or $600,000). Penalty: $10,000 initial, then (after a 90-day grace period following IRS notice) $10,000 per 30 days up to $50,000 more (IRC §6038D(d)); 40% accuracy penalty under IRC §6662(j). irs.gov Form 8938
• Open statute of limitations from an unfiled Form 8938: IRC §6501(c)(8) (the income-tax year stays open until the form is filed, plus three years).
• Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures (Streamlined Domestic and Streamlined Foreign Offshore): IRS Streamlined procedures (non-willful certification; SFOP 0% with the 330-day non-residency test, SDOP 5% of the highest aggregate year-end balance). irs.gov Streamlined (retrieved 2026-07-11)

Updated on July 11, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate planning and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. This article is general information about US tax and Florida law, not legal or tax advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Reporting thresholds, penalty figures, and IRS procedures change; confirm current numbers at irs.gov and get advice on your own facts. For willful exposure, foreign trusts, and large multi-year cleanups we co-counsel an international tax advisor. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.