What is an FBAR and who has to think about it?

The FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is a report of foreign bank and financial accounts, filed separately from your tax return.

You need to think about it if you are a U.S. person — citizen, resident, or entity organized under U.S. law — with a financial interest in or signature authority over foreign financial accounts.

The key trigger is simple to state and easy to misjudge:

• More than $10,000 in the aggregate across all foreign accounts
• Measured at any time during the calendar year
• Includes accounts you own jointly, control through a corporation, or hold signature authority over at work

The $10,000 threshold is the sum of the highest balances of all your foreign accounts, not each account individually.