Friday 24 March 2017

Foreign Bank and Financial Account Report filing for Indian Americans: 10 things to keep in mind

As the US cracks down on foreign bank and financial accounts, it only means one thing for Indian Americans - more reporting! If you thought you were done with this year's reporting when you filed your tax returns in April, you probably forgot about the FBAR - Foreign Bank and Financial Account Report.

The FBAR is a report to be filed in addition to your tax return. For 2011, you must file the FBAR if you were a US resident or citizen and had, at any time in 2011, an aggregate balance of more than $10,000 in all your overseas bank and financial accounts. The due date for the 2011 FBAR is June 30th 2012.

We have already covered, in this earlier article , the basics of FBAR filing, such as eligibility, account limits etc.

In today's article, we look at 10 key points about the FBAR, including some important practical interpretations of the law.

FBAR is different from your tax return
The FBAR is filed in addition to your income tax return. The FBAR must be filed in Form TD F 90-22.1 even if you have already filed Form 8938, 'Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets' along with the tax return.

The historical roots of the FBAR are found in the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 and the intention then was only to collect information on foreign bank accounts. Only recently the US Treasury handed over administration of the FBAR to the IRS which in turn started linking the FBAR to the tax return to check tax evasion.

While Form 8938 and the FBAR require more or less the similar kinds of details, there are some differences in thresholds and type of assets. You can get a complete comparison here .


Source:-Timsofindia
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