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OverviewFBAR: threshold and deadlineForm 8938: thresholds for residents abroadAccounts that must be reportedPenaltiesCommon questionsOverview
Americans in Portugal deal with two separate US disclosure regimes for foreign accounts. The FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, FinCEN Form 114) goes to FinCEN, a bureau of the Treasury, and is filed online outside your tax return. Form 8938, the FATCA statement, is attached to your Form 1040 and goes to the IRS.
They overlap heavily, yet filing one never satisfies the other, and neither satisfies the Portuguese account disclosure. Many filers submit both, listing largely the same accounts twice. Neither report creates tax by itself. They are disclosures, and the money in a Portuguese checking account is never taxed by the act of reporting it.
FBAR: threshold and deadline
You file an FBAR for a year if the combined highest balances of all your foreign financial accounts exceeded 10,000 US dollars at any point in that year. The threshold is aggregate: twenty accounts with 600 dollars each cross it together. Joint accounts count at full value for each holder, and accounts you merely have signature authority over count too.
The FBAR is due April 15 with an automatic extension to October 15. No form or request is needed for the extension, and filing is free through the BSA e-filing system.
Worked example
Dana keeps three Portuguese accounts and wants to know whether an FBAR is due, using round figures for each account's highest balance during the year.
Because the combined total passes 10,000 dollars, Dana files an FBAR listing all three accounts, even though no single account crosses the threshold on its own.
Form 8938: thresholds for residents abroad
Form 8938 has its own thresholds, and they are much higher for residents abroad.
| Status (living abroad) | Year-end value over | Or any-time value over |
|---|---|---|
| Single or married filing separately | $200,000 | $300,000 |
| Married filing jointly | $400,000 | $600,000 |
The abroad thresholds apply when your tax home is in Portugal and you meet the presence conditions in the form instructions. Taxpayers who do not qualify as living abroad face far lower thresholds, so confirm which set applies in your first year. Form 8938 also reaches beyond accounts to other specified foreign financial assets, such as foreign shareholdings held outside an account.
Accounts that must be reported
Two separate reporting checks
Assess both requirements. Filing one does not replace a requirement to file the other.
- FBAR · FinCEN Form 114Separate filing through FinCEN’s BSA E-Filing System.
- FATCA · Form 8938Filed with the income-tax return when its requirements apply.
- Current and savings accounts at any Portuguese bank, including accounts opened just to pay rent
- Brokerage and investment accounts held with Portuguese or other non-US institutions
- Joint accounts with a spouse or family member, at full value
- Retirement savings products such as a PPR (plano poupança reforma, a Portuguese personal retirement savings plan), which are generally reportable; confirm classification for your product
- Accounts you can sign on for a business or relative, even with no ownership
Portugal asks its own version of this question: resident filers disclose foreign accounts in Anexo J of the Modelo 3. The two disclosures point in opposite directions and both apply to the same person, so see the Anexo J guide for the Portuguese side.
Penalties
Penalties exist and are real, but the picture for ordinary filers is calmer than the marketing that surrounds this topic. Non-willful FBAR violations carry a statutory 10,000 dollar civil penalty, adjusted upward for inflation (roughly 16,500 dollars in 2026), and the Supreme Court held in 2023 that non-willful penalties apply per unfiled report, per year, and not per account. Willful violations are a different world, with penalties scaled to account balances. Form 8938 carries its own 10,000 dollar penalty, which can grow with continued non-compliance after IRS notice.
For people who simply did not know, the IRS operates disclosure procedures, including streamlined routes for non-willful cases, that resolve missed years at little or no penalty. Discovering the FBAR late is common and fixable. Ignoring it after discovering it is the expensive path.
Common mistakes
- Testing each account alone against 10,000 dollars. The threshold is aggregate across all foreign accounts, so many small balances cross it together; total the highest balances before deciding not to file.
- Forgetting joint and signature-authority accounts. Joint accounts count at full value for each holder, and accounts you can merely sign on for a business or relative count too.
- Assuming one report covers the other. The FBAR goes to FinCEN and Form 8938 goes to the IRS; filing one never satisfies the other, and neither satisfies the Portuguese Anexo J disclosure.
- Confusing disclosure with taxation. The reports create no tax by themselves, so there is no reason to leave accounts off; skipping them is what carries penalties.
- Staying silent after discovering missed years. Streamlined and delinquent-filer procedures resolve non-willful cases at little or no penalty; ignoring the obligation after finding it is the expensive path.
Common questions
My Portuguese bank asked if I am a US person. Why?
FATCA obliges Portuguese banks to identify US account holders and report them, so the IRS often already has your account data. That is a reason to file accurately rather than a reason to worry.
Do I report an account that was open for one day?
If it existed during the year and pushes the aggregate over 10,000 dollars, or crosses the 8938 thresholds, it belongs on the reports for that year.
Does filing the FBAR mean I owe tax on those balances?
No. The reports disclose that the accounts exist. Interest or gains the accounts produce are taxed through the normal return, on both sides.
I have missed several years. What now?
Do nothing hasty. Read up on the delinquent-FBAR and streamlined procedures, or talk to a professional who handles them weekly. The right route depends on whether tax was also underreported.
Sources
- FinCEN Form 114 instructions and the BSA e-filing system (deadline and automatic extension, checked August 2026)
- IRS, Form 8938 instructions and the FBAR versus 8938 comparison table (thresholds for taxpayers living abroad, checked August 2026)
- Bittner v. United States (2023) on per-report non-willful FBAR penalties
- Greenback Tax Services and Wiggam Law 2026 FBAR and 8938 guides (checked August 2026)
This guide is general information, not personalised tax advice. Rules and rates change, and your facts can move you off the defaults described here. Confirm your position with a qualified professional before acting on it.