973 / What is the FBAR filing deadline and how does a taxpayer file an FBAR?

Under prior law, taxpayers were required to file FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR) on or before June 30 of the year immediately following the calendar year being reported. There was no extension of time to file.

The due date for FBARs has been changed for tax years beginning in 2017 (for calendar year 2016) and thereafter from June 30th to April 15 to coincide with the regular Form 1040 tax filing deadline.¹ As with the federal tax filing deadline, a six-month extension is now available so that taxpayers may file on time by October 15. The Treasury Secretary has authority to waive penalties for failure to complete a timely request for extension for any taxpayer required to file Form 114 for the first time.

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Planning Point: The FBAR filing deadline corresponds to the general federal tax filing deadline for individuals. However, FBARs are not submitted and filed along with a taxpayer’s Form 1040. Instead, FBARs are filed electronically using the FinCEN BSA e-filing system.²

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Planning Point: Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, required FBAR filers who filed the 2019 calendar year FBAR by October 31, 2020 were deemed to have timely filed. FinCEN also published a notice on October 6, 2020 giving FBAR filers impacted by certain natural disasters until December 31, 2020 to file FBARs.³

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Editor’s Note: FinCEN Notice 2020-1 announced an extension of time for FBAR filings due to the notice of proposed rulemaking FinCEN issued on March 10, 2016. One of the proposed FinCEN amendments would expand and clarify exemptions for certain U.S. persons with signature or other authority over foreign financial accounts. This proposed amendment seeks to address questions about the filing requirement and its application to individuals with signature authority over, but no financial interest in, certain types of accounts as outlined in FinCEN Notice 2019-1. FinCEN further extended the filing due date to April 15, 2022 for individuals whose filing due date for reporting signature authority was previously extended by Notice 2019-1. This FBAR extension applies to the reporting of signature authority held during the 2020 calendar year, as well as all reporting deadlines extended by previous Notices.

For all other individuals with an FBAR filing obligation, the filing due date remained April 15, 2021.

FBARs must be filed electronically. An individual who jointly owns an account with a spouse may file a single FBAR report as an individual filer for that joint account. However, a spouse included as a joint owner, who does not file a separate FBAR, must also sign the FBAR. This is not possible with FinCEN’s BSA e-filing system capability because it only allows for one digital signature. In this situation, FinCEN allows the spouses to designate, using Form 114a, which spouse will be designated as the FBAR signatory on the behalf of both.

FinCEN has granted an extension from filing each year since 2011 for signature authority filers who do not have a financial interest in a reportable foreign financial account.

Persons who qualify for the extension include U.S. persons who are:

1. an employee or officer of an entity who has signature or other authority over, but no financial interest in, a foreign financial account of a controlled person of the entity,


2. an employee or officer of a controlled person of an entity who has signature or other authority over, but no financial interest in, a foreign financial account of the entity, the controlled person, or another controlled person of the entity, or


3. an employee or officer of an investment adviser registered with the SEC who has signature or other authority over, but no financial interest in, a foreign financial account of persons that are not investment companies registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940.