Foreign Asset Reporting

Under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, it is now required to report interests in specified foreign financial assets in 2012 for 2011 tax years. This requirement was suspended until the form 8938, statement of specified foreign financial assets, becomes available in December. 

Assets that must be disclosed are foreign bank and brokerage accounts, foreign pension assets and interest in foreign partnerships.

1. TDF 90-22.1 You can get it from http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f90221.pdf

Any United States citizen or permanent resident who has a financial interest in any financial account(s) located outside of the United States is required to file a Form TDF 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), if the aggregate value of these accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year. IRA account is excluded.

Mail the completed form separately from the income tax return to:

U.S. Dept. of the Treasury

P.O. Box 32621

Detroit, MI 48232-0621

The form must be received by June 30 of the year following the calendar year being reported. If you learn you were required to file FBARs for earlier years, you should file the delinquent FBAR reports and attach a statement explaining why the reports are filed late. No penalty will be asserted if the IRS determines that the late filings were due to reasonable cause. 

2. Form 8938, http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8938.pdf

Reporting thresholds:

If you are married filing a joint income tax return and living in the US, you only need to file form 8938 If the total value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than $100,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $150,000 at any time during the tax year. This form is filed with the 2011 tax return. The reporting thresholds are different for taxpayers who live abroad.