2021 FBAR Filing Deadline – What is the FBAR Due Date?
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2021 FBAR Filing Deadline
2021 FBAR Filing Deadline: With 2020 finally behind us, it is only a matter of time before the 2020 tax return filing season opens and of course, the filing of the annual FBAR. The FBAR is Foreign Bank and Financial Account Reporting Form aka FinCEN Form 114. The FBAR is separate from the annual tax return and is filed differently than the tax return. While a tax return is filed either electronically or by paper with the IRS, the FBAR is filed electronically directly on the FinCEN website.
FBAR Deadline for 2021
In 2021, US persons who have foreign bank and financial accounts that have an annual aggregate total that exceeds more than $10,000 on any given day of the year, will file their 2020 FBAR at the same time they file their tax return.
But, the FBAR is on automatic extension.
This means that taxpayers will have until October to file their FBAR to report the maximum annual account values for the year 2020.
Unlike other tax forms such as the 1040, taxpayers do not have to file or request an extension in order to obtain the additional time to file their FBAR.
Rather, since the form is on automatic extension, taxpayers automatically have until October 2021 to file the FBAR.
As provided by FinCEN:
- “Due Date for FBARs
- The annual due date for filing Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) for foreign financial accounts is April 15. The date change was mandated by the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015, Public Law 114-41 (the Act).
- Specifically, section 2006(b)(11) of the Act changed the FBAR due date to April 15 to coincide with the Federal income tax filing season. The Act also mandated a maximum six-month extension of the filing deadline. To implement the statute with minimal burden to the public and FinCEN, FinCEN grants filers failing to meet the FBAR annual due date of April 15 an automatic extension to October 15 each year. Accordingly, specific requests for this extension are not required.”
Missed FBAR Compliance in Prior Years
If you missed the FBAR filing in prior years, you may consider pausing before filing your current FBAR.
Instead, you should work with an experienced Board-Certified Tax Attorney Specialist to develop a strategy to get into compliance for prior years before filing your current year. If you just begin filing FBAR in the current year or try to sneak in your past FBARs without submitting under the FBAR Amnesty procedures, then that is referred to as a Quiet Disclosure or a Silent Disclosure and that is bad news.
While there are plenty of people who may file an FBAR Quiet Disclosure and never get caught, the problem is that if you do get caught, the IRS has indicated it will make an example of you and go after you for full willful penalties– and even a criminal investigation by the IRS Special Agents.
FBAR Amnesty Program Summary
The FBAR Amnesty Programs are programs developed by the Internal Revenue Service to assist taxpayers who are already out of compliance for non-reporting.
Some of the more common programs, include:
- Voluntary Disclosure Program (VDP or “New” OVDP)
- Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures
- Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures
- Delinquency Procedures
- Reasonable Cause
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