AARO Special Report: “The Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR)”

What it is (and why no American expat can afford not to know about it)

Not enough American expats know what an FBAR is, let alone that they may need to file them.

For this reason, AARO – working with London-based American journalist Helen Burggraf – has prepared this four-part Special Report on FBARs, aka “Foreign Bank Account Reports”.

We urge those who are not familiar with FBARs to at least read the beginning of this first article, because you do not have to be rich to find that you have fallen foul of the FBAR regs (and since FBARs are not a tax form, they are often not prepared, or even mentioned, by U.S. tax preparers).

This Special Report from March 1, 2022 on FBARs consists of:

• The main story, “The Foreign Bank Account Report (FinCEN Form 114) at 51”.
• A list of suggestions experts have said could improve the FBAR implementation, “Ways Experts Say FBAR Could be Improved” .
• How we got here from the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act, “How We Got Here: an FBAR Timeline”.
• Finally, some data showing (to the extent that we were able to ascertain, given how little has officially been published) how many people file FBARs, “FBAR Filing Data by Year”.

We would like to add here that Helen was given considerable support in producing this material by Jack Townsend, a Charlottesville, Virginia-based offshore tax (and FBAR) expert, for which we would like to express our heartfelt thanks.