Who must file Form 8938 comes down to three questions asked in order. Are you a specified individual, do you have to file a US income tax return for the year, and do your specified foreign financial assets pass the threshold for where you live and how you file. Fail any one and the form is not due, whatever your UK accounts are worth.
This post is for US citizens, green card holders and British nationals newly resident in the US who want to know whether the form applies to them before they think about what goes on it. It goes deeper than our guide to FBAR and FATCA for UK residents on the filer rather than the assets. It covers the four kinds of specified individual, the no-return exemption, which living-abroad test a green card holder can use, the year you move, and treaty and spouse elections that change the answer.
What is Form 8938 and who must file Form 8938
Form 8938 is the statement of specified foreign financial assets that individuals attach to their US income tax return under FATCA. You must file it if you are a specified individual, you are required to file a return for the year, and your foreign assets exceed the threshold for your residence and filing status.
The Instructions for Form 8938 (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) list four kinds of specified individual. A US citizen is always one, wherever they live. So is anyone who is a resident alien for any part of the tax year, which means meeting the green card test or the substantial presence test. A nonresident alien is outside the definition unless they elect to be treated as a resident to file a joint return, or are a bona fide resident of American Samoa or Puerto Rico.
The form must be filed even when none of the assets affects your tax for the year, and filing it never replaces the FBAR, as our comparison of the FBAR and Form 8938 shows. What it asks you to list, and how ISAs and pensions fit, is covered in our post on what counts as a specified foreign financial asset, and the form itself on our Form 8938 page.
- A US citizen, including a dual national who has never lived in the US
- A resident alien under the green card test, for any part of the year
- A resident alien under the substantial presence test, from the residency starting date
- A nonresident alien spouse who elects resident treatment to file jointly
- A nonresident alien who is a bona fide resident of American Samoa or Puerto Rico
Do you need Form 8938 if you do not have to file a tax return
No. The IRS says that if you do not have to file an income tax return for the year, you do not have to file Form 8938, even when your specified foreign financial assets are above the reporting threshold. The form travels only with a return, so the filing requirement for the return comes first.
The IRS repeats this in its basic questions and answers on Form 8938 (opens the official IRS page in a new tab), and its page Do I need to file Form 8938 (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) starts from the same point. The instructions also say a Form 8938 should not be sent to the IRS unless it is attached to an annual or amended return. A retired American in Cornwall living on a UK pension below the filing threshold for her status, with savings well past the Form 8938 level, has no Form 8938 to file for that year.
The exemption is narrower than it sounds for married people. A US citizen married to a non-US spouse usually files as married filing separately, and that status carries a gross income filing threshold of only $5, as Publication 54 (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) sets out. A small amount of interest on a UK savings account can cross it. Our post on filing on a low income works through the thresholds for each status.
Which Form 8938 threshold applies if you live in the UK
The higher thresholds apply if your tax home is in a foreign country and you meet a presence abroad test. For tax year 2025, someone abroad and not filing jointly files when assets exceed $200,000 at year end or $300,000 at any time. Otherwise the domestic figure of $50,000 at year end or $75,000 at any time applies.
There are two presence abroad tests, and they are not open to everyone. The first, bona fide residence in a foreign country for an uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year, is written for US citizens only. The second asks for presence in a foreign country for at least 330 full days during any period of twelve consecutive months that ends in the tax year being reported, and it is open to a US citizen or resident.
That difference matters for green card holders in Britain. However settled they are in the UK, they cannot rely on bona fide residence for Form 8938 and must count days. A trip back to the US that breaks the day count in every qualifying twelve-month window drops them to the domestic threshold for that year. Married couples filing jointly abroad use $400,000 at year end or $600,000 at any time, and the separate filing rules are in our post on Form 8938 for married couples filing separately.
- US citizen settled in the UK for a whole calendar year: bona fide residence, higher threshold
- US citizen or green card holder with the full day count in a qualifying window: higher threshold
- Green card holder with long US visits breaking every window: domestic threshold
- Anyone whose tax home is in the US: domestic threshold, whatever the days
What changes for Form 8938 in the year you move
Your status as a specified individual may not change, but your threshold usually does. A US citizen moving to London is a specified individual throughout, yet often has only the domestic threshold in the arrival year. A British national moving to the US becomes a specified individual only from their residency starting date.
For an American arriving in the UK, bona fide residence cannot apply until an entire tax year has passed abroad. The day test needs 330 full days abroad inside a twelve-month window that ends in the arrival year, which in practice means leaving the US by early February and staying away. Most people who arrive in spring or autumn therefore test their first-year assets against $50,000 at year end or $75,000 at any time, often for the first time, and some are caught by it.
Moving back to the US works differently, because the twelve-month window may end early in the year of return. Someone who lands in New York in February after several years in Manchester may still meet the day test on a window ending just before the flight, although the tax home condition also has to be checked on the dates. Going the other way, the instructions say a person who is a specified individual for only part of the year reports for that part. Their example is a non-citizen who arrives on 1 February and meets the substantial presence test, whose reporting period runs from that date to 31 December.
Can a treaty claim or a spouse election change who files
Yes, in both directions. A dual resident who uses the treaty tie-breaker to be taxed as a nonresident can drop Form 8938 for the part of the year covered by Form 1040-NR. A non-US spouse who elects resident treatment to file jointly becomes a specified individual, and their assets then count.
The treaty route has conditions. The instructions require the return to be filed on time with Form 8833, the disclosure of a treaty-based return position, attached. The tie-breaker itself is explained in our post on dual residence and the treaty tie-breaker, and the nonresident return on our Form 1040-NR page. Publication 519 (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) sets out how resident and nonresident status is decided in the first place.
The joint election is often made to reach a lower tax bill, and the Form 8938 effect is easy to overlook. Once a British spouse elects resident treatment, their UK accounts, ISAs and pensions count towards the joint threshold and are listed on the form. That can turn a household with no Form 8938 into one that files every year, so the election is worth modelling first with our treaty relief service.
How a green card holder in Bristol decides each year
Take a green card holder working in Bristol who moved from Boston in April last year, with a UK pension, a stocks and shares ISA and savings. She is a resident alien under the green card test for the whole year, so she is a specified individual in both years. Her question each year is which threshold applies, not whether the rules reach her.
In the arrival year she cannot use bona fide residence, which is for citizens, and her days abroad fall short in every window ending that year. Her assets are tested against $50,000 at year end or $75,000 at any time, and with her pension included she files. In her first full UK year she has more than 330 full days abroad, so the higher figure applies. A long summer in the US the following year would need recounting.
She considers a treaty claim to stop filing Form 8938 and decides against it once the expatriation tax (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) consequences are explained. A missed form carries an initial penalty of $10,000 and keeps the year open, as our post on Form 8938 penalties explains, so she files it with her return through our individual tax return preparation work. The steps below are the ones we run each January, alongside the FBAR in our foreign income and FBAR reporting service. For the accounts themselves, return to the guide to FBAR and FATCA for UK residents.
- Confirm you are a specified individual for the year, and from which date
- Check that a US income tax return is required for your filing status
- Decide whether your tax home was abroad and which presence test you meet
- Count days abroad in each twelve-month window ending in the tax year
- Total your specified foreign financial assets against the threshold that applies
- Review any treaty claim or joint election before relying on it
General information, not advice. The right answer depends on your circumstances and the tax year concerned.
