Form 8938 vs FBAR: Key Differences and Who Must File Both

30

Published: October 23, 2026

If you keep money in a bank, brokerage or pension outside the US, two different parts of the government may want to hear about it, on two forms that don’t talk to each other. That’s the heart of Form 8938 vs FBAR. The FBAR goes to FinCEN and is triggered by a fairly small balance, while Form 8938 rides along with your tax return and only applies once your foreign assets are much larger. Each form runs its own test, so you can owe one, both or neither, and plenty of people end up listing the exact same account twice. Below you’ll find a side-by-side comparison, five real examples of who files both, how the numbers on each form should match, and the mistakes and penalties that make getting this right worth the effort.

Form 8938 vs FBAR: what is the difference?

The FBAR is a Bank Secrecy Act report filed online with FinCEN, separate from your taxes. Form 8938 is a FATCA form attached to your Form 1040. Our FBAR vs FATCA guide covers the background on both laws; here’s the side-by-side, drawn from the IRS comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR requirements:

The Form 8938 threshold has two parts, and crossing either means you file: more than $50,000 on December 31 or $75,000 at any time for a single filer in the US, and $100,000 or $150,000 for joint filers. Living abroad raises them to $200,000 or $300,000 (single) and $400,000 or $600,000 (joint).

Do you need to file both Form 8938 and FBAR?

You need to file both when your foreign accounts pass the $10,000 FBAR line and your total foreign financial assets also pass your Form 8938 threshold. The IRS is blunt about this in the Form 8938 instructions: filing Form 8938 does not relieve you of the FBAR requirement. There’s no “pick one.”

In practice, nearly everyone who files Form 8938 also files an FBAR. The reverse isn’t true.

A two-step check you can do in ten minutes

1. Run the FBAR test. Add up the highest balance of every foreign account you own or can sign on, converted to dollars. If the total ever went over $10,000 during the calendar year, you file an FBAR.
2. Run the Form 8938 test. Add up every specified foreign financial asset you have an interest in: the same accounts, plus things like foreign stock held directly and interests in foreign partnerships. Compare both the year-end value and the highest value against your threshold. Cross either one and you file Form 8938.

The two tests use different asset lists, so a “no” on one tells you nothing about the other.

Who has to file both Form 8938 and FBAR?

Real numbers make the Form 8938 vs FBAR split clearer. Here are five common situations for the 2026 calendar year.

Single, living in the US, with a brokerage account in Canada

Mark lives in Denver and kept his old Toronto brokerage account. It peaked at $82,000 and finished the year at $71,000. That’s far over the FBAR line, and $71,000 also beats the $50,000 year-end threshold for single US residents. He files both, listing the same account on each.

Married couple in the US with a joint account in India

Anjali and Rohit file jointly in Texas and hold fixed deposits in Pune together. The balance peaked at $140,000 after they sold a flat and dropped to $95,000 by December 31. Each of them clears the FBAR test, since each spouse counts the full value of a joint account (one spouse can file for both using FinCEN Form 114a if all their accounts are joint). For Form 8938, joint filers in the US have $100,000 and $150,000 thresholds. They stayed under both, so they file the FBAR only.

Single American living in London

Sarah has lived in London for four years, so she qualifies for the abroad thresholds. Her UK accounts and ISA peaked at $260,000 and ended the year at $210,000. The FBAR is a given, and $210,000 crosses the $200,000 year-end line for single filers abroad, so she files both.

Green card holder with shares in a family company

Daniel, a green card holder in New Jersey, owns a 20% stake in his family’s German company directly, worth about $90,000, plus a German bank account with $6,000. The bank account is under $10,000 and the shares aren’t an account, so there’s no FBAR. But Form 8938 counts both: $96,000 is well past the $50,000 year-end threshold, so he files Form 8938 only.

Finance manager with signature authority at work

Lena can sign on her employer’s Singapore operating account but owns no foreign accounts. That can require an FBAR unless one of FinCEN’s exceptions for employees of certain regulated or listed companies applies. Form 8938 ignores signature authority without ownership. FBAR at most, never Form 8938 for that account.

How does the same account show up on both forms?

When an account belongs on both forms, you report it on both, and the numbers should line up. Both the FBAR and Form 8938 ask for the account’s maximum value during the year, and both tell you to convert foreign currency using the Treasury’s exchange rate for the last day of the year. If your FBAR says your Toronto account peaked at $82,000 and your Form 8938 says $64,000, that’s the kind of Form 8938 vs FBAR mismatch that invites questions.

• Both forms let you rely on periodic account statements for the maximum value, unless you know they don’t reflect a reasonable estimate.
• Use the Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange for December 31 on both forms, and keep a note of which rate you used.
• Don’t forget Schedule B. Part III of Schedule B on your Form 1040 asks whether you had a foreign account and whether you’re required to file FinCEN Form 114. Checking “no” while filing Form 8938 with foreign accounts on it is an easy flag to trip.

Tax software can build Form 8938 with your return, but the FBAR goes through FinCEN’s own site, so don’t assume the program in our TurboTax vs TaxAct comparison has filed it for you.

What Form 8938 vs FBAR mistakes trip up people who file both?

Thinking no tax return means nothing to file

If your income is low enough that you don’t have to file a return, you don’t file Form 8938, even if your foreign assets are above the threshold. The FBAR has no such escape. A retiree abroad with modest income and $50,000 in a local bank still owes an FBAR every year.

Counting joint accounts the wrong way

For the FBAR, each owner counts the full value of a joint account. Form 8938 has its own rules: a married couple filing jointly counts a jointly owned asset once; spouses filing separately, who are both specified individuals, each count half; and if you share an asset with a nonresident spouse or anyone else, you count the whole value.

Leaving out assets reported on other forms

If you already report a foreign asset on Form 8621 (for PFICs), Form 3520, Form 5471 or Form 8865, you don’t list it again on Form 8938. You note the form in Part IV instead. But those assets still count toward your Form 8938 threshold. Foreign mutual funds are the usual culprit, so read our explainer on what a PFIC is if you hold funds abroad.

What happens if you miss one or both forms?

On penalties, Form 8938 vs FBAR means two separate systems, and they stack.

For the FBAR, FinCEN’s most recent inflation adjustment (January 2025) put the maximum non-willful penalty at $16,536. Since the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Bittner v. United States, that applies per report, not per account. Willful violations can cost the greater of $165,353 or 50% of the account balance.

For Form 8938, the penalty starts at $10,000. If you still haven’t filed 90 days after the IRS sends a notice, another $10,000 is added for each 30 days, up to $50,000 more, for a total of $60,000. Any tax underpayment tied to undisclosed foreign assets can draw a 40% penalty. Skipping the form also keeps your tax year open: the statute of limitations can run until three years after you finally file Form 8938. Leave out more than $5,000 of foreign income and that window stretches to six years.

If you missed filings without meaning to, the IRS’s Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures and Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures exist for exactly that. Fix it before the IRS contacts you, ideally with someone who handles international returns.

Conclusion

Form 8938 vs FBAR isn’t a choice between two forms. They’re two independent tests that happen to overlap. The FBAR catches almost anyone with more than $10,000 in foreign accounts, and it applies even when you don’t owe tax or file a return. Form 8938 sits at much higher thresholds, but it reaches assets the FBAR ignores, like shares held directly and partnership interests. If your foreign assets cross your 8938 threshold, you’ll nearly always be filing both, listing the same accounts with the same values. Run both tests every year, check the highest balance as well as the year-end figure, and make your Schedule B answers match. For more plain-English guides to taxes and money, browse the rest of Da Finance Blog.