Correcting a mistake on an FBAR you already filed

How do you amend an FBAR through BSA E-Filing

You complete a fresh FBAR on the BSA E-Filing System for the same calendar year, choose Amendment from the submission type menu on the header page, and enter the Prior Report BSA Identifier. FinCEN sent that identifier by email or through the system's secure messaging when the original report was accepted.

The identifier is a fourteen-digit number that links the new report to the old one. FinCEN's line item instructions say that if it is not known, the field is filled with fourteen zeros. That is a fallback, and the number is usually easy to find in the acknowledgement email, in a preparer's records, or on the confirmation saved at the time. Looking for it first keeps the link between the two reports clear.

The rest of the form works exactly as it did for the original. An individual can file without registering, and the report is signed electronically before submission. If a preparer files the amendment for you, the authorisation on FinCEN Form 114a needs to be in place, as it was for the first report. Our page on FinCEN Form 114 describes each part of the form, and the IRS FBAR page (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) links to the same filing system.

• Find the BSA Identifier from the original acknowledgement or confirmation
• Rebuild the full list of accounts for the year, with the corrections made
• Open the individual filing option and select Amendment on the header page
• Enter the Prior Report BSA Identifier, or fourteen zeros if it cannot be found
• Complete every part again, sign electronically and submit
• Save the new confirmation alongside the original one

Does an amended FBAR replace the original report

In practice, yes. FinCEN asks filers to fill out a new FBAR completely when they amend, so the amended report stands on its own as the full record for that year. It is not a supplement listing only the account that changed, and leaving out the accounts that were correct would make the new report incomplete.

That shapes how the work is done. The cleanest approach is to start from the schedule that supported the original report, correct the faulty line, check every other line against the statements again, and then enter the whole list. Errors often travel together. A wrong exchange rate applied to one account was probably applied to all of them, and an account left off one year may have been left off the year before as well.

Each year is its own report. If the same error runs through three years of FBARs, each of the three is amended separately, with its own Prior Report BSA Identifier. The filer details, the year being reported and the account totals in the header all need to be right on each one, because the amended report is the one that should stand as the record for that year.

Which FBAR mistakes are worth correcting with an amendment

FinCEN's instructions describe the amended report as the way to correct any information on a filed FBAR. Common errors among UK filers include a missing account, a maximum value taken from the wrong date or converted at the wrong rate, a joint account entered as a half share, and signature authority accounts left out altogether.

Values cause the most confusion. The FBAR asks for the highest balance of each account in the calendar year, converted at the Treasury reporting rate (opens the official US Treasury page in a new tab) for the last day of that year and rounded up to the next whole dollar. A year-end balance, or a rate taken from the date of the peak, gives the wrong figure. Our post on FBAR maximum value and the exchange rate works through the method.

Joint and signature authority accounts sit in their own parts of the form. Each joint owner reports the entire value of a jointly held account, and the principal joint owner's details are entered with it, as our post on joint accounts with a non-US spouse explains. Accounts you can sign on without owning, such as an employer's, are reported separately, which our post on signature authority for UK employees covers.

• An account omitted, often a closed, dormant or small savings account
• A maximum value taken from the year-end statement rather than the peak
• Pounds converted at the wrong rate, or a rate from the wrong date
• A joint account entered at half its value, or in the wrong part of the form
• Signature authority over an employer's or relative's account left out
• A wrong account number, institution name or institution address

How is correcting an FBAR different from filing a late one

An amendment corrects a report that was filed for the year. A late FBAR is a first report for a year in which nothing was filed. The two are separate tasks on the same system, and the difference matters most when the discovery of a missing account is what takes a year over the threshold.

The FBAR is required when the maximum values of all your foreign accounts, added together, exceed $10,000 at any time in the calendar year. Someone who correctly found they were below that line, filed nothing, and later finds a forgotten account that lifts the total over it has nothing to amend. They have a missing report, which is filed as a new report with a reason for late filing chosen on the form.

The same check applies to the years either side of a correction. Finding an omitted account in one year often means it was absent from earlier reports as well, or that earlier years with no report should have had one. Our post on late FBARs after the IRS withdrew its procedure explains how missing reports are handled now, and where income was also left off the tax returns our IRS streamlined filing service looks at the wider routes.

Does an amended FBAR mean amending Form 8938 or the tax return

Not automatically, but often. The FBAR goes to FinCEN and has no tax on it. If the same account was also missing from Form 8938, or its income was left off the tax return, those are separate errors on IRS filings and need their own correction, usually an amended return on Form 1040-X.

Form 8938 is only ever filed with a return. The Form 8938 instructions (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) say not to send it to the IRS unless it is attached to an annual return or an amended return, so a corrected or newly required form travels with Form 1040-X. Whether it was needed depends on its own higher thresholds, which for a person living abroad and not filing jointly are $200,000 at year end or $300,000 at any time. The IRS comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR requirements (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) sets the two side by side.

The instructions also explain why this matters. If a required Form 8938 is not filed, or a required asset is left off, the assessment period for that tax year can stay open until three years after the information is filed. Where omitted income from foreign financial assets exceeds a set amount, the IRS has six years to assess. Interest missing from the return goes on an amended return under the Form 1040-X (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) rules, and a refund claim generally has to be made within three years from filing or two years from payment, whichever is later.

The Schedule B question on foreign accounts should also be checked. A return that answered no when an FBAR was required carries the same error into the tax filing. Our individual tax return service prepares the amended return and Form 8938 from the same corrected schedule used for the FBAR.

What records should you keep after amending an FBAR

Keep both reports, both acknowledgements with their BSA Identifiers, and the statements behind every corrected figure. FinCEN requires records of each account's name, number, institution, type and maximum value to be kept for five years from the April due date, or from the filing date if later, and a copy of the filed report helps meet that.

A short note of what changed and why is worth writing at the time. It should say which account or figure was wrong, how the error was found, and how the new figure was worked out. If the IRS later asks about the year, the note explains the difference between two reports that would otherwise look inconsistent, and it shows the correction was made openly.

Take a US citizen working as a pharmacist in Glasgow. She filed her FBAR on time, then noticed that a joint account with her husband appeared at half its value and an instant access account was missing. The interest on both was already on her tax return, and her assets were well below the Form 8938 thresholds. She files one amended FBAR listing every account, with the joint account at its full value, and keeps her note with the statements.

Our foreign income and FBAR reporting service prepares amended reports from a rebuilt schedule of accounts and checks the related returns at the same time. The wider rules on accounts, values and deadlines are in our guide to FBAR and FATCA for UK residents.

• The original FBAR and its acknowledgement with the BSA Identifier
• The amended FBAR and its new acknowledgement
• Statements showing the maximum value of each corrected account
• The Treasury rate used for the last day of the year
• A short note explaining what was corrected and why