Holders of bank accounts outside the United States may be required to file FinCEN Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR). In recent years, the filing of the annual FBAR form has been aligned with the income tax deadline. The final due date for the calendar year 2019 FBAR was October 15, 2020. However, due to confusion caused by an administrative error on FinCEN’s website regarding the due date of the 2019 FBAR, the deadline for the 2019 FBAR has been formally extended until October 31, 2020.
Given the potentially severe penalties for not timely filing an FBAR, any foreign bank account holders who may have missed the October 15th deadline should immediately take advantage of this opportunity.
