Report on Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR): General Requirements
Under the Bank Secrecy Act, each United States person must file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (the “FBAR”) with the U.S. Department of Treasury if two conditions apply.
The first condition is that the U.S. person must have either a financial interest in or signature authority (or other comparable authority)over one or more financial accounts in a foreign country. Several clarifications are necessary in order to understand the applicability of this first condition. First, for the purposes of the FBAR, the definition of a “U.S. person” includes U.S. citizens, U.S. residents, and persons in, and doing business in, the United States. “Person” is defined to include not only individuals, but also all forms of business entities, trusts, and estates.