FBAR (FinCEN Form 114)

FBAR stands for Foreign Bank Account Report, filed electronically as FinCEN Form 114. The rule targets US persons, meaning US citizens, green card holders, US residents, and entities formed in the United States, who have foreign financial accounts whose combined value tops $10,000 at any moment during the year. Cross that line even for a day and a report is generally due, listing each account, its bank, and its highest balance.

Where does a non-resident founder fit? As a foreign individual, you are usually not a US person, so your personal accounts in your home country are typically outside the FBAR rules. But your LLC is different: an LLC formed in a US state is a US entity. If the LLC itself holds foreign accounts, say a company account in Singapore and one in Georgia that together pass $10,000 at any point, the LLC can have its own FBAR obligation. The rules around disregarded entities have edge cases, so this is a point worth confirming with an adviser rather than guessing.

The mechanics are friendlier than the penalties. The FBAR is filed online through FinCEN's BSA e-filing system, is due April 15, and gets an automatic extension to October 15 with no form to request. It reports balances only; no tax is calculated on it. Penalties for ignoring it, though, start in the five figures for non-willful violations and grow sharply when the failure looks deliberate.

Keep the FBAR in its own mental box. It does not replace, and is not replaced by, the IRS filings your company owes: Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120 by April 15 for a foreign-owned single-member LLC, or Form 1065 by March 15 for a multi-member LLC. A founder whose LLC banks only inside the United States, which is the common setup, usually has no FBAR to file at all.