How Much Does Form 3520 Preparation Cost?

The IRS charges nothing to file Form 3520. Published firm prices run from $359 at MyExpatTaxes and $400 at Taxes for Expats to $500 at Greenback and Bright!Tax, and Form 3520-A is priced on top at each. For a TFSA or RESP, our written position and the forms start at $600 per trust per year; a gift or inheritance report we quote after the Diagnostic. The penalties are the real cost: 5% a month, up to 25%, on an unreported foreign gift. Our full price list is on what cross-border tax help costs.

When does a US person file Form 3520?

When one of the triggers in the Form 3520 instructions applies: you transferred property to a foreign trust, you’re treated as owning one, you received a distribution from one, or you received large foreign gifts. A separate Form 3520 is filed for each foreign trust, which is why trust files cost more than gift files.

For gifts and bequests, the instructions set two thresholds. You file if you received more than $100,000 from a nonresident alien or foreign estate, counting related donors together, or more than the section 6039F amount from foreign corporations or partnerships. That amount is $20,116 for 2025 under Rev. Proc. 2024-40 and $20,573 for 2026 under Rev. Proc. 2025-32.

Some Canadian accounts are exempt. The instructions exclude transfers to, ownership of, and distributions from an RRSP, a RRIF or another Canadian retirement plan within Rev. Proc. 2014-55, and certain tax-favored foreign retirement and savings trusts under Rev. Proc. 2020-17. Whether a TFSA or RESP needs Forms 3520 and 3520-A is a judgment call that has to be written down, and the TFSA foreign trust guide walks through it. The FHSA raises the same question.

What does it cost to file Form 3520 yourself?

No fee. The cost is time and the risk of a wrong answer. For individuals, the IRS folds the form’s time estimate into the Form 1040 estimate. For filers other than individuals, it estimates 42 hours 34 minutes of recordkeeping, 4 hours 50 minutes learning the form, 6 hours 40 minutes preparing it and 16 minutes sending it, about 54 hours in all.

That burden figure isn’t written for an individual reporting one inheritance, and a simple Part IV gift report is far shorter than a trust return. The deadline is the part people miss. The instructions make Form 3520 due on the 15th day of the 4th month after your tax year ends, or the 15th day of the 10th month if your income tax return is on extension. If you live and work outside the US, it’s June 15 with a statement attached.

A substitute Form 3520-A also has to be attached to your Form 3520 if a foreign trust you own doesn’t file its own. The Form 3520-A guide explains who files it and why a calendar-year trust’s deadline is March 15.

What do firms charge to prepare Form 3520?

Four firms we found publish a price, from $359 at MyExpatTaxes and $400 at Taxes for Expats to $500 at Greenback and Bright!Tax. Each prices Form 3520-A separately, and none of those pages says the price covers the TFSA or RESP position work.

Work	Published price	Source and scope
Form 3520, transactions with foreign trusts or gifts	$400	Taxes for Expats fee schedule, add-on to its $450 federal return
Form 3520-A, foreign trust annual information return	$400	Taxes for Expats fee schedule
Form 3520 or 3520-A	$359	MyExpatTaxes pricing, listed under non-standard forms not included in plans (USD price)
Form 3520; Form 3520-A	$500 each	Greenback additional services, flat fee per form
Form 3520 or 3520-A; both together	$500 either one; $1,000 both	Bright!Tax fees; a gift or inheritance Form 3520 is also $500
Blue Cloud, Forms 3520 / 3520-A with a written TFSA or RESP position	from $600 per trust per year	Our rate card; a starting point, fixed in writing at the Diagnostic
Blue Cloud, Form 3520 for a gift or inheritance	Quoted in writing after the Diagnostic	No published number

Prices were checked on each firm’s page on October 18, 2026. They’re list prices for each firm’s own scope, not a market average.

What pushes the price of a Form 3520 up?

Trusts cost more than gifts. A gift report in Part IV lists the gifts and the donors. A foreign trust return can involve transfers, ownership, distributions and a substitute 3520-A, filed separately for each trust. Late years, missing statements from a foreign trustee, and an IRS notice that’s already arrived all add time.

• Number of trusts. The instructions require a separate Form 3520 for each foreign trust, so a file that reports accounts as trusts grows with the account count. Our TFSA/RESP price is per trust per year for that reason.
• The position itself. Deciding whether a TFSA or RESP is reported or excluded, and writing it down, is the work. The TFSA reporting cost guide breaks that down.
• Related donors. Gifts from related nonresident aliens are added together for the $100,000 test, so the facts about who gave what matter.
• Late filings and penalty relief. A late form often comes with a reasonable-cause statement. If a penalty notice has already arrived, the abatement policy change is where to start.

What does a late or missed Form 3520 cost?

For a foreign gift, IRC 6039F lets the IRS charge 5% of the gift for each month the failure continues, up to 25%, and determine the tax consequences of the gift itself. For a foreign trust, IRC 6677 sets the penalty at the greater of $10,000 or 35% of the gross reportable amount. For a missing Form 3520-A it’s the greater of $10,000 or 5%.

The trust penalty grows if the failure continues: another $10,000 for each 30-day period after 90 days from an IRS notice, capped so the total doesn’t exceed the gross reportable amount. Both sections have a reasonable-cause exception, and 6677(d) says a foreign country’s penalty for disclosing information isn’t reasonable cause.

There’s also the statute. The instructions say that if a complete Form 3520 isn’t filed on time, the time to assess tax on any event or period reported in Parts I to III stays open until 3 years after the information is reported, under IRC 6501(c)(8). If you’ve already been penalized on a TFSA, whether you can fight it covers the options.

What should I do next?

Sort which of the three uses applies to you: a gift or inheritance, a foreign trust you own or received money from, or a Canadian account that might be one. For gifts, add up everything received from related foreign donors in the year. For accounts, list every TFSA, RESP and FHSA by institution, because each one can be a separate trust.

• The TFSA reporting cost guide covers what a TFSA position should cost.
• The Form 3520-A guide covers the trust-side deadline.

This guide is general information, not tax advice for your specific situation. Which points apply, and how, depends on your facts.