FBAR for a Foreign-Owned U.S. LLC: Who Must File, the $10,000 Rule, and How to File FinCEN Form 114

TL;DR

Your U.S. LLC is a “United States person” for the FBAR, even though you are not — so if the LLC held accounts outside the United States whose highest balances added up to more than $10,000 at any point in the year, the LLC files FinCEN Form 114. It is an information report, not a tax. Due April 15, automatically extended to October 15, filed online through FinCEN’s BSA E-Filing System, separately from every IRS form. Miss it and the exposure is five figures per violation, so get the yes/no right.

What an FBAR is

The FBAR — Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts — is FinCEN Form 114. It is a yearly report of financial accounts held outside the United States, filed with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Treasury. It exists under the Bank Secrecy Act (Title 31 of the U.S. Code), not the tax code (Title 26). That distinction matters for an LLC, and we come back to it.

Three things it is not: not a tax (nothing is paid with it); not part of your tax return — the IRS states plainly, “You don’t file the FBAR with your federal tax return”; and not Form 5472 — the two run in opposite directions, and FBAR vs Form 5472 explains why one LLC can owe both.

Who is a “United States person” — and why your LLC is one

A U.S. LLC is a United States person for FBAR purposes because it was formed under U.S. law. The regulation, 31 CFR 1010.350(b), defines a United States person to include a citizen, a resident, and “a corporation, partnership, trust, or limited liability company created, organized, or formed under the laws of the United States, any State, the District of Columbia, the Territories and Insular Possessions of the United States, or the Indian Tribes.”

The test is where the entity was formed, not who owns it or where the owner lives. A Wyoming LLC owned 100% by someone in Osaka or Guangzhou is a United States person. Its owner is not.

Two consequences follow:

1. The LLC files, in its own name, for any accounts the LLC holds outside the United States.
2. You do not file a personal FBAR for your own accounts back home. Your salary account, your savings, your personal brokerage — out of scope, because you are not a U.S. person. (If you are a U.S. citizen or green-card holder living abroad, that changes: you have your own FBAR.)

One more point from Publication 5569: the LLC’s tax classification does not matter. A single-member LLC is “disregarded” for income tax, but “the federal tax treatment of an entity doesn’t affect the entity’s requirement to file an FBAR,” because the FBAR is a Title 31 filing. Disregarded for tax, not disregarded for FinCEN.

The $10,000 rule, in real numbers

You look at the highest balance each foreign account reached at any point during the calendar year, and add those high points together — each account at its own peak, even when the peaks fell in different months. If the total exceeds $10,000, every one of those accounts is reported, including the small ones.

The regulation’s wording is “the aggregate value of the foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year,” and FinCEN’s instructions define each account’s value as its maximum value during the year — “a reasonable approximation of the greatest value of currency and non-monetary assets in the account.” You may rely on periodic statements issued at least quarterly if they fairly reflect the peak.

Foreign-currency accounts are converted to U.S. dollars using the Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange for December 31 of the year, applied to each account’s peak in its own currency. The IRS’s own example: an account held in yen is measured at its maximum in yen, then converted.

The threshold is exceeds $10,000, and it is measured on peaks, not year-end balances — an account emptied before December 31 still counts at whatever it reached in July.

Which accounts count

Any financial account maintained with a financial institution located outside the United States. Publication 5569: “It is the location of the account, not the nationality of the financial institution, that determines whether an account is ‘foreign’ for FBAR purposes.”

Wise, Payoneer and similar platforms are the hard case, and the honest answer is “check the contract.” These companies hold customer balances through different legal entities depending on where you signed up — a U.S. entity for one customer, a Belgian, U.K. or Singapore one for another. FinCEN’s “other financial account” reaches an account with “a person that is in the business of accepting deposits as a financial agency,” which is what an e-money institution does. The entity named in your account agreement and statements tells you where the account is maintained. If you cannot tell, do not guess.

The quick test

Your LLC files an FBAR for a calendar year if all three are true:

1. It is a U.S. LLC, formed in any state — so it is a United States person, wherever you live.
2. It had a financial interest in, or signature authority over, one or more financial accounts located outside the United States.
3. The sum of those accounts’ peaks during the year exceeded $10,000.

All three yes → the LLC files. Any one no → no FBAR for that year, though the question resets every year.

When the FBAR is due

April 15 following the calendar year reported, with an automatic extension to October 15. In the IRS’s words: “You’re allowed an automatic extension to October 15 if you fail to meet the FBAR annual due date of April 15. You don’t need to request an extension to file the FBAR.” There is no form to file for the extension and no reason to give.

So the FBAR for calendar year 2025 is due April 15, 2026, and is on time if filed by October 15, 2026. It runs alongside, not inside, the IRS calendar: Form 5472 is also due April 15, but its extension requires Form 7004. Both are on the deadline calendar for foreign-owned LLCs.

How to file: BSA E-Filing, step by step

The FBAR can only be filed electronically, through FinCEN’s BSA E-Filing System at bsaefiling.fincen.gov. Paper filing needs a specific exemption from FinCEN and is not worth pursuing.

There are two ways in:

• Filing your own report (no registration). FinCEN: “Individuals may electronically file their FBAR through the BSA E-Filing System without registering for an BSA E-Filing account.” The online form asks for the filer type — an entity such as an LLC is selected there — so a company filing its own report uses the same no-registration form.
• Filing through a preparer (institution filer). Anyone filing on behalf of others must “register to Become a BSA E-Filer and file as an institution rather than an individual.” Before the preparer files, you sign FinCEN Form 114a, Record of Authorization to Electronically File FBARs. It is not submitted; the preparer keeps it and produces it if FinCEN or the IRS asks.

What the form asks for, in order:

1. Filer information — the LLC’s legal name, EIN, address, and filer type.
2. Calendar year reported, and whether this is an amended report.
3. For each account — the foreign institution’s name and address, the account number, the account type (bank, securities, other), and the maximum value during the year in U.S. dollars.
4. Ownership — sole, joint, or signature authority only.
5. Signature — the person signing for the LLC, with title and date.
6. Submit. FinCEN sends an acknowledgment e-mail with a BSA identifier. Keep it: it is your only proof of filing.

Keep the underlying records — account name, number, institution, type, and peak value — for five years from the due date; FinCEN and the IRS can ask for them.

Penalties, in current figures

Civil FBAR penalties are capped per violation and adjusted for inflation every year. For penalties assessed on or after January 17, 2025, the amounts in 31 CFR 1010.821 are:

Three qualifiers, all from the IRS’s own materials. Penalties “have varying upper limits, but no minimum” — these are ceilings, not fixed charges. “Assertion of penalties depends on facts and circumstances.” And the figures move each January. Whether any penalty applies to a particular late report is the IRS’s decision, made after the facts are in.

If you should have filed and didn’t

File the missing years now, through the same system, and say why they are late. The IRS’s guidance is direct: “If the IRS hasn’t contacted you about a late FBAR and you’re not under civil or criminal investigation by the IRS, you should file late FBARs as soon as possible to keep potential penalties to a minimum.”

The online Form 114 accepts any past calendar year. On the cover section you either select a reason for filing late or choose “Other” and type an explanation of up to 750 characters — your statement of reasonable cause, which should be factual, short, and yours. Publication 5569 states the standard: “If they properly report the foreign financial account on a late-filed FBAR, and the IRS determines the FBAR violation was due to reasonable cause, no penalty will be imposed.”

That sentence gives you an orderly way to come into compliance with your reason on the record. It does not promise an outcome — “the IRS determines.” We prepare late reports and the explanation properly; we do not promise what the IRS will decide. If the missed years also involve unfiled Form 5472s, coordinate the two clean-ups so the narrative is consistent — see multiple years of unfiled Form 5472.

FBAR vs Form 8938 vs Form 5472

Three filings that foreign owners run together and should keep apart:

Form 8938 is rarely relevant to a non-resident owner. The two that matter for a foreign-owned LLC are the first and the last columns, and they never satisfy each other.

Getting the yes/no right

The question turns on two facts you already have: where each of the LLC’s accounts is maintained, and what each one peaked at. A professional U.S. tax preparer can look at that list and tell you plainly whether an FBAR applies, at no charge, before you are a client. If it does, the FBAR service prepares and files FinCEN Form 114 for the LLC at a flat $99. Send account details only through the client portal — never by e-mail.

Official references: FinCEN — Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts · BSA E-Filing System · IRS — Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) · IRS Publication 5569, FBAR Reference Guide · 31 CFR 1010.350 (who files, what accounts) · 31 CFR 1010.821 (penalty table) · IRS — Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR requirements.

This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. FBAR scope depends on your specific accounts and facts, and penalty figures are adjusted annually.