Last Updated on April 29, 2026 by Bruno Bianchi
Moving to Spain as an American? See Settleguru’s full U.S.-tax checklist for FBAR, FATCA, FEIE, and state exit.
Question
Can anyone shed some light on the need to file an FBAR for foreign bank accounts? I didn’t know this existed (resisting your judgment on this would be greatly appreciated) and a friend recently mentioned that I should file one. However, when I looked into it I noticed this stipulation:
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Start the Moving to Spain Hub →“Who Must File an FBAR: A United States person that has a financial interest in or signature authority over foreign financial accounts must file an FBAR if the aggregate value of the foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year.”
Since I’ve never had $10,000+ in an account this means I don’t need to file, correct? I have the feeling some people file just to cover their butts in case they do exceed that amount but, at least with my current salary, I unfortunately don’t anticipate running that risk anytime soon. Thanks for any feedback!
Answers
These are the answers of some Facebook group members:
“It’s 10k in all accounts, in total. If you have 6k in one account and 5k in another, you have to file.”
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Meet Tax Experts →“No need to file if accounts aggregate to less than $10,000 USD. It’s simply a reporting document intended to stop money laundering and is unrelated to the IRS.”
“Not just banks. If you contribute to a pension or retirement, you need to file as well as if you have access to foreign accounts even if your name is on the account. Parents that have children with a foreign bank account may need to file for them, and since they have access, they need to file for themselves as well.”
“One other thing: I’m pretty sure – too lazy to check, but you should – that you have to file the report if the aggregate balance in your foreign accounts has exceeded 10k at any time during the year. So if you make a big withdrawal on Dec. 30 to get the balance down to $9999, you’re not off the hook.”
“FBAR is a bit weird: The $10k limit is counted as the sum of the max amount of each account during the year, so if you have $5k in one account and then transfer it to another, then that counts as $5k + $5k = $10k, despite never actually having had $10k.
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