How to Fill Out and Submit FATCA Form 8938: Parts and Penalties

To fill out Form 8938, the Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets, you attach it to your annual income tax return and work through its six parts: summary counts of your foreign accounts and other foreign assets, a cross-reference to the income they generated, and detailed line-by-line listings of each account and each non-account asset. You file it if the combined value of your foreign assets crosses the threshold for your filing status and where you live, and it goes to the IRS with your return rather than as a separate submission.¹

Confirm You Have to File

Before filling anything in, check that your foreign assets actually meet the reporting threshold. If you’re not required to file an income tax return for the year, you don’t file Form 8938 either, no matter how large your foreign holdings.¹

The thresholds work on aggregate value across all your reportable foreign assets, and you meet the requirement if you cross either the year-end figure or the peak-during-the-year figure.

Living in the United States

Single or married filing separately: more than $50,000 on the last day of the year, or more than $75,000 at any time during the year.
Married filing jointly: more than $100,000 on the last day of the year, or more than $150,000 at any time during the year.

Living Abroad

Single or married filing separately: more than $200,000 on the last day of the year, or more than $300,000 at any time during the year.
Married filing jointly: more than $400,000 on the last day of the year, or more than $600,000 at any time during the year.

Specified domestic entities — certain corporations, partnerships, and trusts formed or used to hold foreign financial assets — use the same $50,000/$75,000 thresholds as an unmarried U.S. filer.²

What Assets You Report

Form 8938 reaches further than a bank account list. You report foreign deposit and custodial accounts at foreign financial institutions, stock or securities issued by a non-U.S. person, any interest in a foreign partnership, corporation, trust, or estate, and financial instruments or contracts held for investment where the issuer or counterparty is not a U.S. person.

You don’t report accounts held at a U.S. domestic financial institution, at the foreign branch of a U.S. financial institution, or at the U.S. branch of a foreign financial institution.¹

Working Through the Six Parts

Download the form and its instructions from irs.gov/Form8938.³ Most filers move through the parts in order.

Parts I and II: The Summary

These are the top-of-form summary sections. Part I covers your foreign deposit and custodial accounts. Part II covers everything else: stock, entity interests, and financial instruments. For each category, enter the number of accounts or assets and indicate whether the aggregate value exceeded your applicable reporting threshold.⁴

Part III: Tie to Your Return

Part III cross-references the income your foreign assets produced to the rest of your tax return. For each income type — interest, dividends, royalties, capital gains, and others — enter the dollar amount and the specific form and line number where that income appears elsewhere on your return. The IRS uses these entries to check that your Form 8938 and your income reporting line up, so accuracy here matters as much as the values themselves.⁴

Part V: Each Foreign Account

Part V is the detailed listing for every foreign deposit or custodial account. For each one, provide:

The account type.
The financial institution’s name and mailing address.
The account number.
The maximum value of the account during the year.
Whether you opened or closed the account during the year.

Part VI: Each Non-Account Asset

Part VI captures the same level of detail for assets that aren’t accounts — foreign stock, entity interests, and financial instruments. For each asset, enter a description, the issuer’s or counterparty’s name and address, the maximum value during the year, and whether you acquired or disposed of it during the year.⁴

Converting Foreign Currency

All values on Form 8938 go in U.S. dollars. If an asset is denominated in a foreign currency, convert year-end valuations using the exchange rate on the last day of the tax year, and use the applicable date’s rate for other valuations. The form has a checkbox asking whether you used a foreign currency exchange rate and a field to identify it. The Treasury Department’s rates are the standard reference for most filers, and the IRS also publishes yearly average exchange rates on its website.⁵

Assets Already on Another International Form

If you’ve already reported a foreign asset on one of these international information returns for the same tax year, you don’t repeat the full detail on Form 8938:

Form 3520 (foreign trusts and certain foreign gifts).
Form 5471 (certain foreign corporations).
Form 8621 (passive foreign investment company or qualified electing fund).
Form 8865 (certain foreign partnerships).

Instead, identify which of those forms covers the asset and how many you filed. The asset’s value still counts toward your aggregate for the threshold test; the exception only spares you from listing it twice.⁶

Submitting the Form

Form 8938 is not filed on its own. Attach it to your annual income tax return and file the two together. Depending on your entity type, that return may be Form 1040, 1040-NR, 1040-SR, 1041, 1065, or 1120.⁶

The deadline is whatever due date applies to that return, including extensions. For most individuals, that’s April 15, or October 15 if you file on extension. E-filing through approved tax software gives you an immediate confirmation. Paper filers mail the return with Form 8938 attached to the IRS service center for their location and should keep a copy and any mailing receipts.⁶

One boundary worth noting: Form 8938 does not satisfy your FBAR obligation. The FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is a separate filing to FinCEN through its BSA E-Filing System, triggered when foreign financial accounts exceed $10,000 at any point in the year, and it is not attached to your tax return.⁷ Many people who file Form 8938 also owe an FBAR.

Penalties If You Skip It

The baseline civil penalty for failing to file Form 8938 is $10,000. If the IRS notifies you of the failure and you still don’t file, an additional $10,000 penalty accrues for every 30-day period (or part of one) after the first 90 days following the notice, capped at $50,000 in additional penalties. The worst-case civil exposure on a single failure is $60,000.⁸ Any tax underpayment tied to an undisclosed foreign asset also draws a 40-percent accuracy-related penalty, double the standard rate.⁹

A missed Form 8938 also freezes the audit clock. The three-year statute of limitations for items connected to the omitted foreign assets doesn’t start until you provide the missing information, so the return stays open until you file.¹⁰ The IRS will not impose the penalty if you can show reasonable cause and not willful neglect, but you have to affirmatively present the supporting facts, and pointing to a foreign country’s secrecy laws is expressly not a valid reason.⁸

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Internal Revenue Service. Do I Need to File Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets
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Internal Revenue Service. Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR Requirements
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets
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Internal Revenue Service. Form 8938 – Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets
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Internal Revenue Service. Foreign Currency and Currency Exchange Rates
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8938 – Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets
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FinCEN.gov. Report Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6038D – Information With Respect to Foreign Financial Assets
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Internal Revenue Service. FATCA Information for Individuals
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6501 – Limitations on Assessment and Collection