Non-wilful usually has a route
Where the failure to file was genuinely a matter of not knowing, the streamlined procedures exist for exactly that, and the outcome is normally far better than the headline penalties suggest.
Tax
The forms nobody told you about carry some of the largest penalties in the code
Foreign account reporting is not a tax. It is an information filing — and the penalty for missing it can be far larger than any tax the account would have produced.
The United States taxes its citizens and residents on worldwide income, and separately requires reports on foreign accounts, foreign companies and foreign gifts. Most people who fall foul of these rules are not hiding anything. They have a pension in another country, a savings account a parent opened years ago, or a share in a family business abroad.
The penalties, though, were written for people who are hiding something. That mismatch is what makes this area frightening, and it is also why the IRS built a route back for taxpayers whose failure to file was not wilful. If that describes you, there is almost always a path — and it is a far better path taken before a letter arrives.
Scope
What’s included
FBAR — FinCEN Form 114
Filed with FinCEN rather than the IRS, and required once your foreign accounts together exceed $10,000 at any point in the year — even for a single day.
Form 8938 — FATCA
A separate filing that goes with your return. Its thresholds are higher than the FBAR’s and vary with filing status and whether you live abroad, so many people owe one form and not the other — and plenty owe both.
Foreign business interests
Form 5471 for shareholders, officers and directors of foreign corporations, with the supporting schedules the form actually requires.
Foreign gifts and trusts
Form 3520 for large gifts or inheritances received from abroad and for dealings with foreign trusts. The gift itself is usually not taxable; the cost lies in not reporting it.
Exclusion and credit compared
The foreign earned income exclusion and the foreign tax credit run side by side rather than assumed. For many people one is clearly better, and it is not always the obvious one.
Streamlined filing procedures
The IRS streamlined compliance procedures, including the written non-wilfulness certification, for people who should have been filing and were not.
Outcome
Why it matters
Coming forward first matters
These relief routes close once the IRS has contacted you about the issue. The value of acting is at its highest before there is a letter.
The return and the reports agree
The Form 1040, the FBAR and the FATCA filing all have to tell the same story. Preparing them in one office is how that happens.
Process
How it works
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Confidential first call
Tell us what exists and where. Nothing is filed and nothing is reported until you decide to proceed.
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Scope the exposure
Which forms were required, for which years, and whether the facts support a non-wilful position.
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Choose the route
Streamlined procedures, the delinquent information return route, or simply filing correctly from here. We explain the trade-offs before you commit.
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File and stay current
The catch-up package filed, then the annual reports calendared so this never becomes a back-filing problem again.
Suited to
Who this is for
- U.S. citizens and residents with a bank account in another country
- People holding a pension or investment account abroad
- Shareholders, officers or directors of a company outside the United States
- Anyone who received a large gift or inheritance from overseas
- Green card holders who have never reported a foreign account
FAQ
Questions
It counts toward the FBAR total, yes. The test is the combined highest balance of all your foreign accounts during the year — not the balance of any one of them, and not the balance on 31 December. An account you rarely touch still belongs in the calculation.
For most people, far less than they fear. Where the failure was non-wilful, the streamlined compliance procedures let you file the missing years with a written certification, and the penalty exposure is reduced sharply — in some cases to nothing at all for people who were living outside the United States. What matters is starting before the IRS does.
No. The FBAR reports nothing but the existence and the highest balance of the account. Tax, if any is due, is owed on what the account earned — interest, dividends, gains — and that belongs on your Form 1040 like any other income. They are two separate obligations, and people often meet one while missing the other.
Often needed alongside this
Other services
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Individual & Family Tax Preparation
Every return is checked by a second reviewer, filed electronically, and tracked until the IRS and the FTB confirm acceptance.
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ITIN Applications & Renewals
The form is one page. The reason so many are rejected is the documentation — and that is the part we handle.
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Amended & Prior-Year Returns
Most amendments start the same way: a document arrives after the return was filed, or somebody reads the return properly for the first time.
Let’s find out what you should actually be paying.
Thirty minutes with an Enrolled Agent, at no charge. Bring last year’s return and we will tell you plainly what we would do differently — and what it would cost.