En esta noticia
Among all of the tax obligations in the United States, there is one whose fines rank among the harshest in the entire legal system of the country, and which is at the same time one of the little-known: the FBAR. It is the mandatory report of foreign bank accounts, and failing to file it can cost from thousands of dollars for a simple oversight to half of the account balance, or more, in the most serious cases.
What Form 114 is and who must file it
The FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) is FinCEN Form 114, a return filed with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), an office of the Treasury Department. An important detail: it is not filed with the tax return or with the IRS, but separately and electronically.
The requirement applies to so-called “U.S. persons”, a broader category than many people think: U.S. citizens (wherever they live), permanent residents (green card holders), and resident aliens, as well as certain companies.
The requirement is triggered when the person has a financial interest in or signature authority over one or more foreign accounts whose combined value exceeded 10,000 dollars at any time during the year. A key point: that threshold is based on the total of all accounts combined, not per account. And it applies even if the person only has signature authority without owning the money.
The HARDEST fines in the entire U.S. legal system
Here is what makes the FBAR an extreme case. The penalties are divided into two main categories depending on whether the noncompliance was a mistake or was deliberate.
Non-willful violation:
This occurs when the person fails to report because of negligence, lack of knowledge, or an honest mistake. For 2026, the fine is up to 16,536 dollars per report (amount adjusted for inflation). Thanks to a 2023 Supreme Court ruling (Bittner v. United States), this fine applies per unfiled annual report, and not per account, which made it somewhat less burdensome than before.
Willful violation:
This occurs when the IRS determines that the person knew about the obligation and still failed to comply or tried to hide the accounts. Here, the fine is the greater of 165,353 dollars or 50% of the account balance, and it applies per account and per year. In other words, it can exceed the account balance itself.