How to File an FBAR: BSA E-Filing Step by Step

You file an FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) online through FinCEN’s BSA E-Filing System. An individual doesn’t register: you pick the online form or the PDF form, enter each account’s highest balance in US dollars, sign electronically and submit. Nothing is mailed and nothing goes with your 1040. If you’re still working out whether you have to file at all, start with who needs to file an FBAR, then come back here for the mechanics.

Do you need a BSA E-Filing account to file an FBAR?

Not as an individual. The BSA E-Filing FBAR page says “There is no need to register to file the FBAR as an individual,” and offers two methods: an online form that doesn’t need Adobe Reader and is done in one sitting, and a PDF form you can save and come back to. An attorney, CPA or enrolled agent filing for you has to register as an institution instead.

FinCEN’s page on individuals versus preparers treats a person who owns an account, or only has signature authority over one, as an individual filer, and “An individual who jointly owns an account with a spouse may file a single FBAR report as an individual filer.”

There’s no paper option by default. The IRS FBAR page says you must call FinCEN’s Resource Center to ask for an exemption from e-filing, and a printed Form 114 isn’t accepted.

What do you need before you start the FBAR?

Your own identifying details and five facts about each account. FinCEN’s recordkeeping rule lists the account facts: the name on the account, the account number, the institution’s name and address, the type of account, and its maximum value for the year. Keep them for five years.

For you as the filer, the FBAR filing instructions ask for:

• Your US taxpayer identification number (SSN or ITIN). Only if you have none do you use Item 4, a passport or foreign TIN.
• Your date of birth and name.
• An address. Someone living outside the US enters a US mailing address if they have one; otherwise, a foreign residence address. Canadian postal codes go in without spaces, so K1A 0B1 becomes K1A0B1.

For each account, have the year’s statements in front of you. The peak balance is the number that matters, not December 31.

How do you find the maximum account value?

Take the highest balance the account reached during the year in Canadian dollars, convert it at the Treasury rate for December 31, and round up to the next whole dollar. FinCEN’s maximum account value page calls it “a reasonable approximation of the greatest value” in the account, and lets you rely on statements that fairly reflect it.

• The rate comes from the Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange. For December 31, 2025, the Canadian dollar rate is 1.369. If no Treasury rate exists, FinCEN says to use another verifiable rate and give its source.
• Each account is valued separately, even when they’re all at one bank.
• A negative result goes in as zero.
• If you can’t work out a value, you check the “amount unknown” box, Item 15a. FinCEN allows that for filers with fewer than 25 accounts who can’t tell whether their total crossed $10,000.

Which part of the FBAR does each account go in?

It depends on how you hold the account, not what kind of account it is. Accounts you own alone go in Part II, accounts you own with anyone else go in Part III, accounts you can sign on but don’t own go in Part IV, and Part V is for an entity’s consolidated report. The filing instructions set out each part’s items.

Canadian account	Usual part	Type of account (Item 16), in our read
Your own chequing, savings or GIC	Part II	Bank
Your own RRSP, TFSA, RRIF or FHSA at a brokerage	Part II	Securities
Your own RRSP or TFSA held as a bank deposit	Part II	Bank
Joint chequing with a spouse or parent	Part III	Bank
Joint non-registered brokerage account	Part III	Securities
A parent’s account you hold power of attorney over	Part IV	As the account is
Your Canadian employer’s account you can sign on	Part IV	As the account is
Cash-value life insurance policy	Part II	Other, with a description

The type for each registered account follows what the account holds, so check whether yours is a deposit or an investment account. A few rules from the instructions shape the rest of the form:

• Part III asks for the number of joint owners, not counting you, and the principal joint owner’s name, address and TIN if known. If your spouse is a joint owner, your spouse is the principal joint owner.
• Part IV asks for the account owner’s details and your title or role with them.
• 25 or more accounts: answer “Yes” in Item 14a or 14b and give the count instead of listing them, but keep the details.
• Someone living abroad who works for an employer located outside the US and can sign on its accounts completes only Part I and Items 34 to 43 of Part IV.

How do spouses file one FBAR together?

By both signing FinCEN Form 114a and keeping it. The system takes only one electronic signature, so FinCEN’s spouse filing page says a Form 114a “should be completed designating which spouse will file the FBAR,” and the designated spouse files for both. The form “is retained by the filer and not sent to FinCEN.”

The exception has three conditions, and all have to hold:

1. Every account the non-filing spouse has to report is jointly owned with the filing spouse.
2. The filing spouse reports those joint accounts on a timely, electronically signed FBAR.
3. Both spouses have completed and signed Form 114a.

If the spouse who isn’t filing has a reportable account in their own name, the exception fails and both file separately, each reporting the full value of every joint account. The filing spouse’s own accounts can simply go in Part II of the joint FBAR. Couples filing jointly skip the third-party preparer section. How joint accounts are taxed across the border is a separate question, covered in joint accounts and FBAR obligations.

Can a CPA file my FBAR for me?

Yes, with your signed Form 114a. FinCEN lets an attorney, CPA or enrolled agent sign and submit your FBAR through their own registered institution account once you’ve given “documented authority (Form 114a).” The preparer can’t use the individual no-registration option. You keep the 114a, the preparer keeps a copy, and neither sends it to FinCEN unless asked.

What signing it means is spelled out on the form itself: you declare the account information you gave is true and complete, and you acknowledge that “it is my/our legal responsibility, not that of the preparer,” to file on time. The preparer fills in the third-party preparer section, Items 47 to 59, including their PTIN.

If you’d rather do it yourself, nothing stops you, and what FBAR filing costs compares the two.

What happens after you submit, and how do you amend?

You get a tracking ID on the confirmation screen and by email, then a second email with your BSA Identifier. FinCEN’s how-to-e-file guide says the acknowledgment comes “Within two business days” and that the BSA Identifier is a 14-digit number beginning with 310000. Save both emails and a copy of the filed report; together they’re your proof of filing and part of your records.

To fix a filed FBAR, you file a complete new one and mark it as an amendment:

• Choose “Amendment” as the submission type and enter the Prior Report BSA Identifier.
• If you don’t know that number, or the original was on paper, enter 00000000000000.
• Don’t send only the corrected line. The instructions say to “fill out a new FBAR completely.”

Filing late. An FBAR filed after October 15 of the following year asks for a reason from a drop-down list; if none fits, choose “Other” and explain. The IRS’s Publication 5569 says the text box takes up to 750 characters. If the FBARs are part of a streamlined package, the IRS’s Streamlined Foreign Offshore page says to select “Other” and enter “Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures.” Which route fits you is in late FBARs, delinquent filing or streamlined, the dates are in the FBAR deadline for 2026, and what’s at stake if you don’t file is in the FBAR penalties decision tree.

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