Amended FBAR: how to correct an FBAR you already filed

1When do you need to amend an FBAR?

FinCEN's instructions call for an amended report whenever you find an error in an FBAR you've filed. The usual reasons:

• An account is missing: a small savings account, a joint account, a pension, or an account you can only sign on.
• A balance is wrong: often the year-end balance was entered instead of the highest balance during the year.
• The exchange rate is wrong: a bank's rate or an average rate instead of the Treasury's rate for December 31.
• Details are wrong: an account number, the bank's name or address, or your own details.
• The type of interest is wrong: a joint account entered as sole, or an account you only sign on entered as your own.

Once your accounts add up to more than $10,000 at any point in the year, every foreign account belongs on the FBAR, even the small ones. That's the most common reason people need to amend. The FBAR, explained.

2Amended FBAR or late FBAR?

A late FBAR asks why it's late; an amended one doesn't. What to write on a late FBAR.

3How do you amend an FBAR in BSA E-Filing?

1. Find the original FBAR's BSA identifier. It came in the confirmation email or through the BSA E-Filing System's secure messages. If you can't find it, FinCEN says to enter 00000000000000, fourteen zeros.
2. Gather the correct figures for every account: the highest balance during the year, converted at the Treasury's December 31 rate, rounded up to the next whole dollar.
3. Open a new FBAR on FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System. Individuals don't need to register.
4. Tick the Amend box and enter the prior report's BSA identifier.
5. Fill in the whole FBAR again, with your details and every account, not only the one that changed. The amended report replaces the original.
6. Check it, sign it and submit it, then save the confirmation with a copy of the amended FBAR.
7. Keep a note of what changed and why, with the statements behind the new figures.

If a preparer files the amendment for you, you sign FinCEN Form 114a to authorize them, and keep it with your records. FinCEN's line item filing instructions cover amendments.

4What are the most common FBAR mistakes?

The FBAR threshold checker converts balances at the Treasury's December 31 rates, the ones FinCEN asks for.

5How do you work out the right balance and exchange rate?

Most amendments come down to these two numbers, so it's worth getting them right this time. FinCEN's rules:

• Use the maximum value, a reasonable approximation of the highest balance during the year. Periodic statements can be relied on, as long as they fairly reflect that maximum.
• Convert at the Treasury's rate for the last day of the year, December 31, even if the highest balance was in March. If the Treasury has no rate for the currency, use another verifiable rate and give its source.
• Round up to the next whole dollar: $15,265.25 becomes $15,266.
• Enter zero if an account's value works out as negative, such as an overdrawn account.

The same values decide whether you had to file at all: add up every account's maximum value, and if the total is over $10,000, every account goes on. Getting this step wrong the first time is how many people end up amending.

6A worked example

Jamie lives in Manchester and filed a 2024 FBAR on time, listing a current account and a savings account. Going through the statements in 2026, Jamie finds two problems: the savings account was entered at its year-end balance instead of its highest, and a cash ISA was left off. The Treasury's December 31, 2024 rate was 0.797 pounds per dollar.

Jamie files one amended 2024 FBAR listing all three accounts, with the Amend box ticked and the original's BSA identifier. The interest on all three accounts was on Jamie's 2024 return, so the FBAR is the only thing to fix. If the ISA's interest hadn't been reported, Jamie would need more than an amended FBAR.

7What if the mistake is in several years, or on a joint FBAR?

Each year's FBAR is a separate report, so each year with the mistake needs its own amended FBAR, with that year's BSA identifier and that year's December 31 rate. An account left off one year is often missing from the years around it too, so check every year you filed.

Married couples can file one FBAR together only when all of the other spouse's accounts are owned jointly with the filing spouse. If the account you missed belongs to your spouse alone, joint filing no longer covers your spouse for that year: they usually need a late FBAR of their own, listing the joint accounts too.

8Can you be penalized for a mistake on an FBAR?

FBAR penalties apply to failing to report accounts accurately, not only to failing to file. A non-willful violation can carry up to $16,536 for each year, adjusted for inflation, and a willful one much more. But the law also says no non-willful penalty applies when the violation was due to reasonable cause and the account's balance was properly reported.

In practice, finding and correcting your own mistake before the IRS asks is the strongest position to be in. FBAR penalties can generally be assessed for six years from each FBAR's due date, so errors in that window are worth fixing. FBAR penalties explained.

9What if income from the account is missing too?

An amended FBAR fixes the FBAR. It doesn't fix a tax return that left out the interest, dividends or growth from the account you forgot, or a Form 8938 that left out the account: Form 8938 is part of the tax return, so it's corrected with an amended return. If that's your situation, the income has to be reported as well, and the safest way to do both is usually the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures if you live abroad, or the domestic version if you live in the U.S. Correcting the FBAR alone, and leaving the returns as they are, is a form of quiet disclosure.

Not sure which applies? See every IRS catch-up option, compared.

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