How do I report to the FBAR when transferring funds from a foreign country to a US account?

Last Updated on April 29, 2026 by Bruno Bianchi

Question

I recently transferred money from my bank account in Australia to my US account (TDAmeritrade). I used Wise so the money was transferred into the Australian Wise account, transferred to the US Wise account and then into Ameritrade. 

How do I report this on next year’s FBAR? I assume that I report it for both Australian accounts even though it was a transfer?

Answers

These are the answers of some Facebook group members:

“If either of the foreign accounts had a balance over $10k even briefly, then yes, you report them both on the FBAR”

“all accounts are listed when an FBAR is required. This frequently includes accounts that had zero balances throughout a year.”

“It can be helpful when preparing an FBAR to use the official FBAR reference guide here:

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/IRS_FBAR_Reference_Guide.pdf.

Further guidance can be found in the right-hand column of the page at this FinCEN website: https://www.fincen.gov/report-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts?fbclid=IwAR3UqpnTIjVENy5alzGhpmhY-OAF1jbGwPq263xn3NgHLoIsdqmHBlFIVRE”

“You report the AU wise account amount if that’s your highest daily balance for the year. The US wise account is not a foreign account as they use a US chartered bank for their transactions there. BTW, the previous comment was not correct, you report all of your foreign accounts whenever the aggregate total for the highest daily balance in each of the accounts is $10,000-not Judy’s accounts that have $10,000. Once you hit the reporting threshold, you report every foreign account, even if it has a zero balance.”

“I transfer directly from my UK bank to my US bank account. It’s never held at wise so nothing to report.”

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