Form 8938 vs FBAR: Do I File Both?

Usually yes. They are different forms, filed with different agencies, under different statutes, with different thresholds, and one does not replace the other. The IRS says so directly: “The Form 8938 filing requirement does not replace or otherwise affect a taxpayer’s obligation to file FinCEN Form 114” (IRS, Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR Requirements). A Canadian who keeps a bank account, an RRSP, and a TFSA after moving to the US will almost certainly owe both.

What is the FBAR?

FinCEN Form 114, the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. It is not a tax form and does not go to the IRS. It goes to FinCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau of the Treasury) through the BSA E-Filing system. You file it if you are a US person and the aggregate value of your foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any point during the calendar year.

“A United States person that has a financial interest in or signature authority over foreign financial accounts must file an FBAR if the aggregate value of the foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year.” IRS, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)

US person here means a citizen, a resident alien, a trust, an estate, or a domestic entity. The $10,000 is not per account; it is the combined maximum across all foreign accounts at any single point in the year. A Canadian chequing account, a savings account, an RRSP, and a TFSA together clearing $10,000 on any day in the year triggers the filing for the whole set.

The FBAR deadline is April 15 with an automatic six-month extension to October 15. No form is needed for the extension; it applies by operation of FinCEN’s own notice. If you are late or never filed, the late-FBAR guide works through the options.

What is Form 8938?

Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets, required by IRC 6038D, which is the domestic reporting arm of FATCA (the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act). It attaches to your income tax return and is filed with the IRS, not FinCEN. The thresholds are higher than the FBAR’s $10,000 and depend on two things: whether you live in the US or abroad, and how you file.

Filing status	Living in the US	Living abroad
Single or married filing separately	$50,000 at year-end or $75,000 at any time	$200,000 at year-end or $300,000 at any time
Married filing jointly	$100,000 at year-end or $150,000 at any time	$400,000 at year-end or $600,000 at any time

(IRS, Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR Requirements)

“At any time” is the trigger most people miss. You can finish the year under the year-end threshold and still owe the form if you crossed the at-any-time threshold on any single day. For a Canadian who sold a property and parked the proceeds in a Canadian bank for a few months before moving the funds south, that at-any-time number is the one that fires.

The thresholds apply to specified foreign financial assets, which is a wider category than foreign financial accounts. It reaches foreign accounts plus foreign stock and securities not held in an account, foreign partnership interests, foreign financial instruments, and interests in foreign hedge funds or private equity funds. It does not reach foreign real property held directly (as opposed to through a foreign entity), and it does not reach social security or pension benefits from a foreign government.

The Form 8938 deadline is the due date of your tax return, including extensions.

When do I need both?

Any time both thresholds are met, and for a Canadian with meaningful accounts in Canada, that is nearly always. The FBAR threshold is so low ($10,000 aggregate) that a single Canadian bank account with a normal operating balance triggers it. The Form 8938 threshold is higher but still reachable for anyone who kept an RRSP, a TFSA, and a bank account or two.

The shift that catches people happens at immigration. A US citizen living in Canada files under the “living abroad” thresholds for Form 8938: $200,000 at year-end for a single filer. The same person moves to the US, starts filing under the “live in the US” thresholds, and the 8938 trigger drops to $50,000 at year-end. The FBAR threshold does not move at all; it is $10,000 in both cases.

Scenario	FBAR owed?	Form 8938 owed?
Canadian accounts totalling $8,000 at their peak	No	No
Canadian accounts totalling $15,000, filing from the US, single	Yes	No (under $50,000)
Canadian accounts totalling $60,000 at year-end, filing from the US, single	Yes	Yes
Canadian accounts totalling $150,000 at year-end, filing from Canada, single	Yes	No (under $200,000)
Canadian accounts totalling $250,000 at year-end, filing from Canada, single	Yes	Yes

What does each form cover that the other doesn’t?

The overlap is large but not complete.

Form 8938 covers, FBAR does not: stock or securities in a foreign corporation held directly (not in an account), foreign partnership interests, foreign financial instruments and contracts, interests in foreign hedge funds and private equity funds.

FBAR covers, Form 8938 does not: foreign branch accounts of US financial institutions, accounts over which you have signature authority but no financial interest (you are a signatory on someone else’s account), and indirect interests in foreign accounts through entities you own more than 50% of.

Both cover: deposit and custodial accounts at foreign financial institutions, foreign mutual funds, and foreign life insurance or annuity contracts with a cash value.

For a Canadian who moved to the US and kept a bank account, an RRSP, a TFSA, and a non-registered brokerage account at a Canadian institution, all four accounts go on both forms. If the same person also holds shares of a private Canadian corporation directly (not in an account), those shares go on Form 8938 only.

What are the penalties for missing each?

Different statutes, different enforcement, different consequences.

FBAR: The baseline non-willful penalty is up to $10,000 per violation as set by 31 USC 5321(a)(5)(B), adjusted annually for inflation (the current adjusted figure is higher). A willful violation carries the greater of $100,000 or 50% of the account balance at the time of the violation, also inflation-adjusted. Criminal penalties can reach $250,000 and five years.

Form 8938: $10,000 for failure to disclose, plus an additional $10,000 for each 30-day period of continued non-filing after IRS notice, capped at an additional $60,000 (IRC 6038D(d)). Criminal penalties are possible. And the statute of limitations on the entire return stays open until three years after the form is filed, the same structural risk that Form 5471 carries under IRC 6501(c)(8).

Both penalty regimes carry reasonable-cause relief, but neither grants it automatically. You have to establish it.

The FBAR penalty is the one that can run up fast, because it applies per account, per year. Six accounts over three years of missed FBARs is 18 potential violations, and even the non-willful base at $10,000 each is $180,000 before adjustment. In practice, and per the IRS’s own guidance, penalties at the statutory ceiling are not the norm for a non-willful first-time filer, but the range on the statute is what makes people nervous, and the catch-up routes exist to close it before it lands.

What should I do next?

Pull your year-end and peak-year account statements from every Canadian financial institution, including registered accounts. Add the peak values together to check against the FBAR’s $10,000 aggregate, and add the year-end and peak values against the Form 8938 thresholds for your filing status and residence. If you also hold shares, partnership interests, or other financial assets outside an account, those count toward Form 8938 but not the FBAR. If you are behind on either or both, the catch-up guide walks the streamlined route that sweeps both forms in with the returns.

• Late FBAR: delinquent filing or streamlined?, when only the FBARs are missing
• What does the streamlined procedure actually cost for a Canadian?, because the number of accounts drives the fee
• Is a TFSA a foreign trust for US purposes?, the reporting question that sits on top of the account-level filings
• Are Canadian mutual funds PFICs?, the other form that compounds when Canadian accounts hold funds

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