Foreign Bank Accounts - Deadline June 30, 2011

If you have a foreign bank account, please take note.  The Form TD F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, or "FBAR", must be completed and filed by June 30 for persons having a financial interest in and signatory and other authority over foreign accounts with a combined value that exceeded $10,000 at any time during the preceding calendar year.  There is no extension of time for filing the FBAR.  It is filed separately with the Treasury Department in Detroit, because FBAR is for the U.S.  Department of Treasury and not the IRS.  You may "hand deliver" your FBAR to a local IRS office for forwarding to Treasury in Detroit, but I would get a receipt from the IRS indicating the date of delivery. 

If you realize that you have never filed this report for previous years and should have, please contact me for starters.   Checking the boxes, "YES" for answering the questions at the bottom of your Form 1040, Schedule B probably was not good enough, either.  The Treasury, and not just the IRS, is very serious about unreported foreign income and assets.   The penalties are high and are not necessarily limited to being just civil in nature.   Criminal penalties with possible jail time are possible.   Prominent individuals, who previously had not reported foreign accounts, are currently facing imprisonment!

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