Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures: the fix when only your FBARs are missing

1Who qualifies for the Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures?

Answer these questions in order. If every answer leads to "Continue", this route is likely yours.

The no-penalty treatment applies when you properly reported, and paid tax on, the income from the accounts on your U.S. returns, and you hadn't already been contacted about an income tax examination or a request for delinquent returns for those years. Not sure about the $10,000? The FBAR threshold checker adds up your accounts in any currency.

2Is your income really reported?

This is where most people trip up. The route depends on every bit of income from the accounts being on your U.S. return, and some of it is easy to miss because your own country doesn't tax it or never sends a form.

3A worked example

Chris moved to Toronto in 2016 and has filed U.S. returns every year since, reporting the salary and the interest on a Canadian savings account, with the tax paid. Chris never filed an FBAR, though the chequing and savings accounts together have been over $10,000 every year. In 2026 a coworker mentions the FBAR.

Chris files six late FBARs, one for each year from 2020 to 2025, each with the same short statement. Because the interest was on every return and the tax was paid, the procedures apply, and there's no penalty. Chris's returns don't change.

Now change one fact: Chris also had a TFSA, and its growth never made it onto the U.S. returns. Then this route no longer fits, and Chris would use the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures instead: three returns, six FBARs and Form 14653.

4Which accounts go on an FBAR?

The FBAR covers financial accounts outside the U.S. that you own or can sign on, once their combined highest balances top $10,000 at any point in the year. Each account is listed with its own highest balance, and a joint account is reported at its full value.

• Usually reported: bank accounts of every kind, brokerage and investment accounts, mutual funds with a published price, insurance policies or annuities with a cash value, many foreign pension accounts, and accounts you can sign on but don't own, such as an employer's or a parent's.
• Usually not: property you own directly, shares held in your own name rather than in an account, cash or gold you keep yourself, and U.S. accounts, even ones that hold foreign investments.

Forgetting one account, or a single year, is the most common reason people end up here. The FBAR, explained in full.

5How do you file late FBARs? A step-by-step walkthrough

Every FBAR, late or not, is filed online through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System. Each year is a separate FBAR.

1. Find each account's maximum value for the year: a reasonable approximation of its highest balance. Convert it to dollars at the Treasury's exchange rate for the last day of the year.
2. Open the FBAR form on the BSA E-Filing System. Individuals don't need to register to file.
3. Fill in the cover page. Give the filing a name, like "Chris 2021 FBAR", and tick the box if a third party, such as a preparer, is filing it for you.
4. Choose the late-filing reason. An FBAR filed after the October 15 extended due date asks why it's late. Pick the reason from the list, or choose "Other" and write your explanation in the box. This is where your statement goes.
5. Enter your details in Part I: name, taxpayer ID, date of birth and address.
6. List your accounts: those you own alone in Part II, those owned jointly in Part III, and those you can only sign on in Part IV. Each needs the bank's name and address, the account number and the maximum value.
7. Check the form, save a copy, then sign and submit it. Keep the confirmation and a copy of each FBAR with your records.

If a preparer files for you, you sign FinCEN Form 114a, which authorizes them to file. It stays in your records; it isn't sent to FinCEN. That's how we e-file FBARs for our clients. FinCEN's own filing-late instructions cover the late-filing reason.

6What should the late-filing statement say?

Keep it short, factual and true: why you didn't file, how you found out, and that the income from the accounts was on your U.S. returns. Here's a general version to adapt.

Keep only the sentences that are true for you. For three more samples, including one for an inherited account, plus a Word template, see our delinquent FBAR cover letter guide.

7How many years of late FBARs should you file?

The procedures don't set a number. In practice, most people file the last six years, because FBAR penalties can generally be assessed for six years from each FBAR's due date. Older years usually don't need to be filed.

The six years run back from the most recent FBAR whose due date has passed. Filing in late 2026, that's 2020 to 2025. The years-to-file calculator works it out for any date.

8What if you don't qualify?

• Income from the accounts wasn't reported: the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures if you live abroad, or the domestic version if you live in the U.S.
• Information returns like Form 8938 or 5471 are missing too, but the income was reported: the delinquent international information return procedures.
• The IRS has already contacted you: these procedures are off the table, but a reasonable cause explanation can still matter. Talk to a professional before you reply.
• Not filing was a choice: voluntary disclosure, with defined penalties instead of open-ended risk.

Outside any procedure, the law itself says no non-willful FBAR penalty applies when the violation was due to reasonable cause and the account balance is properly reported. That's a harder argument to rely on than a procedure's terms, which is why the routes above usually come first.

9This or Streamlined?

Still unsure? See every IRS catch-up option, compared.

10What happens after you file?

Usually, nothing. You won't get an approval letter. FBARs filed this way aren't automatically audited, but they can be selected like any filing. Keep the confirmations, the statements you used for the balances and a copy of your explanation. From then on, file every FBAR by the October 15 extended due date.

Common questions

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