The FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) goes to the Treasury Department and reports foreign financial accounts once they top $10,000 in total. Form 8938 is a FATCA form filed with your income tax return, it reports a broader set of foreign assets, and its thresholds are higher and depend on where you live and how you file.

If you cross both thresholds, you report the same accounts twice, on two forms, to two different parts of the government. This article explains the differences and who files what. To review your situation with counsel, call (415) 968-1780.

FBAR vs. Form 8938 at a glance

The two filings overlap but are not the same. Here is how they compare:

What each form actually reports

The FBAR is focused: it reports foreign financial accounts, meaning bank accounts, brokerage and securities accounts, foreign mutual funds, and certain foreign pension or cash-value insurance accounts held at an institution outside the United States. We cover the account rules in detail in FBAR filing requirements.

Form 8938 reaches wider. It reports “specified foreign financial assets,” which include the same foreign accounts plus other assets that are not held in an account at all: foreign stock or securities you hold directly, an interest in a foreign entity, and foreign financial instruments or contracts with a non-U.S. counterparty.

A useful rule of thumb is that a directly held foreign investment, such as shares in a foreign company held outside a brokerage account, can be reportable on Form 8938 even though it never appears on an FBAR. Neither form, it is worth noting, reports directly held foreign real estate or personal physical assets, though real estate held through a foreign entity can bring the entity interest into Form 8938.

The Form 8938 thresholds are higher and depend on where you live

Unlike the flat $10,000 FBAR threshold, Form 8938 thresholds vary by filing status and residence. For taxpayers living in the United States, the filing requirement generally starts when specified foreign assets exceed $50,000 on the last day of the year or $75,000 at any point for a single filer, with the figures roughly doubling for married taxpayers filing jointly.

For taxpayers living abroad, the thresholds are much higher, generally starting around $200,000 at year-end or $300,000 at any time for a single filer, and again roughly double for joint filers. Because the numbers are adjusted and applied to specific facts, confirm the current thresholds for your filing status before relying on them.

Why many people file both

The reason both forms so often apply is that their coverage overlaps in the middle. A taxpayer with, say, $120,000 spread across two foreign bank accounts and a foreign brokerage account is over the $10,000 FBAR threshold and over the domestic Form 8938 threshold at the same time, so the same accounts get reported on both forms.

Filing one does not satisfy the other, and there is no credit for having filed the other form. When in doubt, the conservative and common approach is to review both tests separately.

What about cryptocurrency?

Crypto adds a wrinkle to both forms. For the FBAR, an account holding only virtual currency is not currently reportable, though most exchange accounts also hold cash-like assets that make the whole account reportable, and the rules are changing. Form 8938 treatment of directly held crypto is likewise unsettled. We work through both in Crypto FBAR: Reporting Cryptocurrency on Foreign Exchanges.

The penalties for getting it wrong

Both forms carry serious penalties, which is why the conservative approach usually wins. FBAR penalties reach roughly $16,500 per report for non-willful violations and far more when a violation is willful, a subject we cover in FBAR Penalties: Willful vs. Non-Willful and How to Reduce Them.

Form 8938 carries a $10,000 failure-to-file penalty that can climb to $50,000 for continued failure after IRS notice, along with a 40% accuracy-related penalty on any understatement tied to an unreported asset, and a failure to file Form 8938 can keep the statute of limitations open on your whole return. The figures adjust over time, so confirm current amounts.

What to do if you missed one or both

Missing these filings is common and fixable, but the right correction depends on whether the failure was non-willful or willful. Non-willful taxpayers may be able to use the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures or the Delinquent FBAR Procedures, while cases involving possible willfulness point toward the formal IRS Voluntary Disclosure Practice.

Do not quietly back-file without advice. The disclosure path is a decision to make with an attorney, under privilege, before you file anything. For the full picture, see our offshore and international tax attorney page.

How Kugelman Law helps

We advise U.S. taxpayers on foreign-account and foreign-asset reporting and represent them when a filing is missed or a penalty is assessed, from sorting out which forms apply to correcting past years and defending penalties.

Our results reflect what disciplined advocacy achieves in high-stakes tax disputes. In one federal matter, two IRS Notices of Deficiency proposing more than $557,000 across six years were settled in U.S. Tax Court down to roughly $38,000, and with avoided interest and California exposure the client effectively saved over $1.2 million. Results depend on specific facts. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Talk to an attorney about your foreign-reporting obligations

If you are not sure whether you owe an FBAR, a Form 8938, or both, get a privileged assessment before you file. Schedule a paid, privileged consultation with Kugelman Law by calling (415) 968-1780 or visiting our contact page.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to file both the FBAR and Form 8938?

Often, yes. They are separate filings with different thresholds, and many taxpayers exceed both. If your foreign accounts top $10,000 at any point in the year, you file an FBAR, and if your specified foreign assets also exceed the Form 8938 threshold for your filing status, you file that form too. One filing does not satisfy the other.

What is the difference between the FBAR and Form 8938?

The FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is filed with the Treasury and reports foreign financial accounts once they exceed $10,000 combined. Form 8938 is a FATCA form filed with your tax return, reports a broader set of specified foreign financial assets, and has higher thresholds that vary by filing status and whether you live in the U.S. or abroad.

What are the Form 8938 filing thresholds?

For taxpayers living in the U.S., the requirement generally starts above $50,000 in specified foreign assets at year-end or $75,000 at any time for a single filer, roughly doubling for joint filers. For taxpayers living abroad, the thresholds are much higher, generally starting around $200,000 at year-end or $300,000 at any time for a single filer. Confirm the current figures for your filing status.

Does Form 8938 report assets the FBAR doesn’t?

Yes. Form 8938 covers specified foreign financial assets beyond accounts, such as directly held foreign stock or securities and interests in foreign entities, which can be reportable on Form 8938 even when they never appear on an FBAR. Neither form reports directly held foreign real estate.

What happens if I file one but not the other?

You can still face a penalty for the form you missed. The filings are independent, so satisfying the FBAR does not excuse a missing Form 8938 or vice versa. If you have missed either, the correction path depends on whether the failure was non-willful or willful, and should be chosen with an attorney.

About the author

Alex Kugelman is the founder and managing attorney of Kugelman Law, with nearly two decades of federal tax controversy experience including U.S. Tax Court and U.S. District Court litigation. He is admitted in California and before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Tax Court, and the U.S. District Court for the Northern and Eastern Districts of California, and served as San Francisco Chair of the Federal Bar Association Tax Division in 2018. He is nationally recognized for cryptocurrency tax and has been quoted in the Financial Times and the New York Post on California tax enforcement. For matters that reach into IRS offshore examinations, his colleague Otto Bosch, a former IRS Revenue Agent from the Large Business & International division, leads the firm’s federal audit-defense work.

This article is attorney advertising and general information, not legal advice, and it describes rules and thresholds that can change. Foreign-reporting obligations are fact-specific. Contacting Kugelman Law does not create an attorney-client relationship.