FBAR stands for Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. It’s a US filing requirement, separate from your regular tax return, aimed at US persons with a financial interest in — or even just signing authority over — accounts held outside the United States. For Indians living in the US, that means NRE, NRO and FCNR accounts, and often mutual fund or brokerage accounts held in India too.
It’s filed as FinCEN Form 114 with FinCEN, the US Treasury’s financial crimes unit, not the IRS, even though most people who owe it also file a US tax return. It reports account balances; it isn’t itself a tax and doesn’t, by itself, make anything taxable that wasn’t already.
Who has to file
If you’re a US person — a citizen, green card holder, or otherwise a US tax resident — and the combined value of all your foreign financial accounts is more than USD 10,000 during the calendar year, you have to file. Take the highest balance each account reached during the year and add them up, even if those highs came on different days. If the total is more than USD 10,000, you file. The test counts accounts you merely have signing authority over (a parent’s account you can operate, for instance), not only ones you own outright.
Why NRIs in the US often miss it
Two things trip people up. First, the FBAR looks at the combined balance across every foreign account you have an interest in — someone with several smaller Indian accounts can cross the threshold in total even though no single account looks large. Second, it’s easy to assume that reporting foreign income on your US tax return is enough; FBAR is a completely separate filing, with its own deadline and its own penalties for missing it, and filing one doesn’t excuse you from the other.
What to do about it
If you’re a US person who holds or has signing authority over any Indian bank or investment account, check the current threshold and filing deadline before assuming you’re under it — the rule looks at every account together, not each one separately — and if you’re unsure, a CPA or Enrolled Agent who handles US persons abroad can confirm your position. Our guide to FBAR and FATCA reporting for Indian accounts goes through which Indian accounts count, both reports’ thresholds, and what to do if you’ve missed a year.
Also called: Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts
See also
Where it matters
- FBAR deadline 15 October 2026 for H-1B holders with NRE and NRO accounts
- FBAR and FATCA reporting for Indian bank accounts: what to report, and the thresholds
- How to file the FBAR online for Indian bank accounts, step by step
- Indian mutual funds and PFIC: what a US tax resident actually owes