Form 8938 is the IRS attachment used to satisfy the reporting requirement under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. To fill out Form 8938, confirm that your foreign financial assets exceed the threshold for your filing status, gather year-end statements from each foreign institution, complete only the parts of the six-part form that apply to your holdings, convert every value into U.S. dollars, and attach the finished form to your annual income tax return.
Confirm You Have to File
Filing turns on the total value of your specified foreign financial assets and where you live. Four thresholds apply to individuals:1Internal Revenue Service. Explanation of Section 6038D Temporary and Proposed Regulations
- Single filers living in the U.S.: total value above $50,000 on the last day of the tax year, or above $75,000 at any point during the year.
- Married filing jointly, living in the U.S.: above $100,000 on the last day, or above $150,000 at any point.
- Single filers living abroad: above $200,000 on the last day, or above $300,000 at any point.
- Married filing jointly, living abroad: above $400,000 on the last day, or above $600,000 at any point.
Certain domestic corporations, partnerships, and trusts that were formed or used to hold foreign financial assets must also file. A closely held domestic entity qualifies as a “specified domestic entity” if at least 50 percent of its gross income is passive income or at least 50 percent of its assets produce passive income. Its threshold matches the single-filer-in-the-U.S. amount, and the form attaches to the entity’s Form 1065 or 1120 rather than a Form 1040.2Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8938
Note the boundary with the FBAR (FinCEN Form 114): filing Form 8938 does not satisfy the FBAR, and the FBAR’s threshold is much lower — $10,000 in combined foreign account balances at any point in the year. If your accounts cross both thresholds, you file both forms with two different agencies.3Internal Revenue Service. Summary of FATCA Reporting for U.S. Taxpayers
Identify Which Assets to Report
“Specified foreign financial assets” fall into two broad categories. The first is foreign financial accounts — bank, brokerage, and custodial accounts held at institutions outside the United States. The second is non-account investment assets: stock or securities issued by a foreign corporation, any interest in a foreign entity, and financial instruments or contracts with a foreign counterparty.4Internal Revenue Service. Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR Requirements
Foreign pension plans and deferred compensation arrangements are also reportable. An interest in a foreign retirement plan held for investment and not maintained in a financial account counts as a specified foreign financial asset. The IRS treats its examples as illustrative rather than exhaustive; when a foreign holding is ambiguous, the safer course is to report it.5Internal Revenue Service. Basic Questions and Answers on Form 8938
Work Through the Six Parts of the Form
Download the current version from the IRS website. The form has six parts, and you complete only the ones that fit your situation.6Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8938
Parts I and II: Asset Summaries
Part I summarizes your foreign deposit and custodial accounts: the number of accounts, their combined maximum value during the year, and the total value on the last day of the year. Part II does the same for other foreign assets, such as stock in a foreign company, foreign-issued debt, and interests in foreign entities. Both parts act as a cover page for the detailed breakdowns that follow.
Parts V and VI: Account-by-Account Detail
The detailed reporting sits in Part V (for deposit and custodial accounts) and Part VI (for other foreign assets). For each account, provide the account number, whether the account was opened or closed during the year, the maximum value during the year, the name and mailing address of the financial institution, and the institution’s Global Intermediary Identification Number (GIIN) if one was assigned. For non-account assets in Part VI, provide the name and address of the issuer or counterparty, a description of the asset, and its maximum value.6Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8938
Most of this information comes from year-end statements issued by the foreign bank, brokerage, or fund administrator. If your institution does not issue formal statements, hold on to transaction confirmations and correspondence that document the account’s existence and value.
Part III: Tax Items From Foreign Assets
Part III ties each reported asset back to your return. For each asset, list the type of income (interest, dividends, royalties, capital gains, or other), the dollar amount, and the schedule or form on your return where that amount was reported. The IRS uses this section to cross-check that the income generated by the foreign assets actually shows up in your taxable income.
Part IV: Assets Already Reported Elsewhere
If a foreign asset already appears on another international information return — Form 3520 for foreign trusts, Form 5471 for foreign corporations, Form 8621 for passive foreign investment companies, or Form 8865 for foreign partnerships — note it in Part IV and skip the detailed reporting in Parts V or VI for that particular asset. Enter the number of each type of form you filed.
Convert Every Value to U.S. Dollars
All values on Form 8938 must be stated in U.S. dollars. The instructions direct you to use the U.S. Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service exchange rate in most cases; those rates are published on the Treasury’s Fiscal Data website. If the Fiscal Service does not publish a rate for your currency, use another publicly available exchange rate and disclose the source on the form.2Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8938
Some interests in foreign entities have no readily determinable value. Provide a reasonable estimate based on fair market value and explain your methodology. Apply the same conversion approach across all reported assets so the numbers stay consistent.
Attach the Form and File With Your Return
Form 8938 cannot be filed on its own. Attach it to your annual federal income tax return — Form 1040 for individuals, Form 1065 or 1120 for entities — and submit them together. The filing deadline is the same as your return: April 15 for most individual taxpayers filing for tax year 2025.7Internal Revenue Service. IRS Opens 2026 Filing Season If you obtain an extension for your return, the Form 8938 deadline extends with it, typically to October 15.
E-filing gives immediate confirmation that the IRS received both the return and the attachment, and it reduces processing errors. Keep foreign account statements, exchange rate records, and valuation estimates for at least six years, because FATCA-related statute of limitations rules can extend that far.
Penalties for Getting It Wrong
The base penalty for failing to file is $10,000 per year. If you still have not filed 90 days after the IRS mails a notice, the penalty grows by $10,000 for every additional 30-day period of non-compliance, up to a maximum of $50,000 on top of the initial $10,000 for that year.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6038D – Information With Respect to Foreign Financial Assets
An underpayment of tax linked to undisclosed foreign assets carries an accuracy-related penalty of 40 percent of the underpayment, double the standard 20 percent rate.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6662 – Imposition of Accuracy-Related Penalty on Underpayments Willful evasion can also be prosecuted criminally under 26 U.S.C. § 7201, with fines up to $100,000 for individuals ($500,000 for corporations) and up to five years in prison.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 7201 – Attempt to Evade or Defeat Tax
Missing the form also keeps your return open for audit longer than usual. The IRS can assess additional tax for three years after you eventually provide the missing information, rather than three years after the original due date. If you omit more than $5,000 of gross income attributable to a foreign financial asset, the assessment window extends to six years after the return was filed, regardless of whether you met the reporting threshold.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6501 – Limitations on Assessment and Collection
No penalty applies if the failure was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect. The IRS decides this case by case. To claim reasonable cause, attach a written statement to each late-filed form explaining the specific circumstances. Documenting reliance on a tax professional’s incorrect advice, or a foreign institution’s failure to provide statements despite your requests, carries more weight than a general lack of awareness.
Catching Up on Missed Years
If you’ve missed prior years and the IRS has not yet contacted you about it, the Delinquent International Information Return Submission Procedures allow you to catch up. You are eligible as long as you are not under civil examination or criminal investigation and the IRS has not already contacted you about the missing forms.12Internal Revenue Service. Delinquent International Information Return Submission Procedures
Attach the delinquent Form 8938 to an amended return (Form 1040-X) for each missed year, along with a reasonable cause statement. Penalties may still be assessed during processing, but the reasonable cause statement gives you a basis for abatement. Returns filed under this procedure are not automatically audited, though they remain eligible for selection through normal audit channels.