mrken30

So if I move $200,000 (£100,000) from my US account to my UK account at rate of 2 USD to 1 GBP in July , if the rate is only $1.5/£1 on 31st Dec of the same year, I only report $150,000 on my FBAR

Thanks

durham_lad

Yes, it is very easy to pick out the highest balance with only a couple of accounts.

I keep a spreadsheet anyway to record the IRS taxable monthly savings account interest paid plus my UK pension (soon to be 2 pensions - Yay!) so it is a moment's work to record the highest balances each month while updating it.

durham_lad

Correct. Treasury just want a snapshot and no taxes are involved.

The IRS is after taxes for income received so they publish a different exchange rate which is the average for the year.

mrken30

Unfortunately mine is not as simple , I have income and expenses going out of my account so in good months it goes up a lot , in bad months it can go down quite a bit. However it sounds like I only need to keep daily exchange rates for tax purposes and not FBAR.

You must express the amounts you report on your U.S. tax return in U.S. dollars. Therefore, you must translate foreign currency into U.S. dollars if you receive income or pay expenses in a foreign currency. In general, use the exchange rate prevailing (i.e., the spot rate) when you receive, pay or accrue the item.

https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Inte...Exchange-Rates

Thanks

durham_lad

I used to do exactly this but I learned that since my income is regular (monthly interest and pension), I can use the published IRS average. I do still actually record the spot rate using XE.com each month and do the conversions every month on the interest and pension when I received them but it is also a little higher so I save myself a bit of tax using the average IRS figure.

For my pension I have to create a substitute 1099-R and supporting document where I state that it is regular monthly payments and I use the IRS average rate to convert to $.

Since your income is irregular then I'm sure you should be using the spot rate.

MidAtlantic

Yes. You take the highest balance during the year in local currency (GBP in your example) and use the Treasury Rate of Exchange as at December 31st to convert it to USD for the FinCen report. It doesn't matter where the money has come from or gone.

kodokan

No FBAR needed, as long as you don't have any other UK accounts at all - ISAs, pensions of any kind..?

LauraLou07

I had been automatically enrolled in a work pension, which i havent been paying into anymore since leaving the UK. Im guessing they will include this?

LauraLou07

If the amount that is in my pension and adding the 5000 which was the highest amount in my bank at any given time still doesnt come over 10,000 dollars will i need to file FBAR? Also, do people that have entered on a K1 and are currently waiting for AOS need to file?

MsElui

remember you may also have to declare any other accounts that you control - so not just checks or savings but PENSION funds, shareholdings and the like. We have multiple accounts that hold more than 6k in pension funds as both husband and i moved jobs several times in the uk before we came here.

LauraLou07

Do i have to declare the AE pension even if the amount that i accumulated, plus the 5000 (which was the highest amount in my bank at any given time during 2015) doesn't go over the $10,000? I was only paying into the pension for roughly 3 years when i was automatically enrolled in it with work and i only paid in 9.00 a month.

MidAtlantic

You total the maximum balance in each relevant account through the year in the local currency. You convert this total to USD using the December 31st Treasury Rate of Exchange. If this exceeds $10,000 you have to submit an FBAR.

lotte14

Hi - I am new to FBAR filing and this site! I read somewhere that debit cards needed reporting. Does anyone ever do this? I have one tied to my bank account so it seems strange to report it all over again! Perhaps there are some exotic weird debit cards that do something more interesting than mine!!!!

robin1234

No, that you wouldn't report, since (as you suggest) it's just a function of a bank account that you'll report anyway, so you wouldn't want to double count that account. However, if you had a "prepaid" card, with a cash balance on it, you'd probably report that, because the card itself represents a financial account.

Some of these stories about exotic accounts you have to report originate with people who want to maximise the number of accounts they own, because if you have a large number of accounts (over fifty is it?) you don't need to list their details, you just check the box "I have over fifty accounts."

For instance, some folks claim you have to list your TfL Oyster Card. Maybe it has a balance of £25 on it! BUT, is it a financial account? Not really...

lotte14

Thanks Robin,
Wow - I'd have never have though of reporting an oyster card - its not issued by a financial organisation!
I guess some of the problem is that there appears to be a profitable online scare industry geared towards terrifying everyone about fbar and muddying the water. The IRS generally produces some pretty good literature explaining tax etc - but there seems to be an absence of really good material for 8938/fbar - even if it just debunked some of the grey areas.