Washington Tax Alert from Don Barnes March 3, 2016
Washington Tax Alert from Don Barnes,[email protected]
March 3, 2016
Earlier this week, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued proposed regulations regarding FBARs.
Since April 1972, citizens and residents of the United States (and persons doing business in the United States) who have financial interests in 25 or more foreign financial accounts have not been required to disclose information regarding the accounts on FinCEN Form 114 (and predecessor forms). These filers have been required only to disclose the number of foreign accounts in which they have a financial interest.
For calendar year 2013, Treasury received 10,800 FBARs from filers who reported financial interests in 25 or more foreign financial accounts. These individuals in the aggregate reported having interests in 5,366,000 foreign financial accounts, or an average of 497 accounts per filer.
The remaining FBARs received by Treasury from individuals reporting financial interests in fewer than 25 foreign financial accounts provided detailed information regarding a total of 4,167,000 foreign accounts. Thus, the majority (approximately 56%) of foreign financial accounts reported on FBARs for 2013 were reported without specific account information.
Treasury is proposing to change the regulations to require all filers to disclose detailed account information with regard to all of their foreign financial accounts on FinCEN Form 114. If this change is enacted, the process of inputting account information into the form could be an administrative nightmare for filers with hundreds of foreign accounts.
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