Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures: Filing Late FBARs Now

The Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures were the IRS route for people who reported all their income but missed FBARs. The IRS no longer lists them, and the old page returns “Page Not Found.” The fix itself hasn’t changed: if your returns were right, you file the late FBARs through BSA E-Filing with a reason, and no penalty applies when the IRS finds reasonable cause. If income was missed, it’s the streamlined procedures. The FBAR hub covers who has to file at all.

What happened to the Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures?

The IRS stopped publishing them. When we checked on October 18, 2026, the old page at irs.gov returned a 404 “Page Not Found.” The IRS’s options for undisclosed foreign assets, last updated June 30, 2026, lists three options, and the delinquent FBAR procedures aren’t one of them.

The three that remain:

• IRS Criminal Investigation Voluntary Disclosure Practice, for willful conduct.
• Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures, for non-willful failures that include unreported income.
• Delinquent international information return submission procedures, for late forms such as 3520, 5471 and 8938, not FBARs.

What the IRS says now about late FBARs is on its FBAR page: if it “hasn’t contacted you about a late FBAR and you’re not under civil or criminal investigation,” you “should file late FBARs as soon as possible to keep potential penalties to a minimum.” The penalty rule underneath never depended on the procedure. Under 31 USC 5321(a)(5)(B)(ii), no non-willful penalty applies if the violation was due to reasonable cause and the balance was properly reported. Publication 5569 puts it as no penalty if you report the account on a late FBAR “and the IRS determines the FBAR violation was due to reasonable cause.”

The examiner manual still has a Delinquent FBAR Filing Procedures section, IRM 4.26.16.3.11, which says a penalty “will not be asserted” for an account when the failure wasn’t willful, was due to reasonable cause, and the account is properly reported on the late FBAR. That’s guidance to IRS staff, not a procedure you can file under.

Which late-FBAR route fits your facts?

It turns on two questions: was the income from those accounts already reported on filed US returns, and has the IRS contacted you? Reported and no contact means you file the FBARs yourself. Unreported means Streamlined, foreign or domestic depending on a residency test. Willful conduct, or an open examination, takes you out of both.

Your situation	Route	What you file	Penalty exposure
Income reported, tax paid, only FBARs missed, no IRS contact	File the late FBARs	Each missed year on FinCEN Form 114, with a late-filing reason	None if the account is properly reported and the IRS determines reasonable cause
An FBAR was filed but an account or value was wrong	Amend	A complete new FBAR marked as an amendment, with the prior BSA Identifier (IRM 4.26.16.3.12)	Same reasonable-cause test
Income not reported, and in any one of the last 3 return years you had no US abode and 330 full days outside the US	Streamlined Foreign Offshore	3 years of returns, 6 years of FBARs, Form 14653	No penalties for an eligible filer who follows all the instructions
Income not reported, no year qualifies, and the original returns were filed	Streamlined Domestic Offshore	3 years of amended returns, 6 years of FBARs, Form 14654	A one-time 5% Title 26 miscellaneous offshore penalty
The failure was willful	Neither	Voluntary Disclosure Practice, with counsel	Willful penalties, counted per account
IRS civil examination open, or criminal investigation	Neither	Get representation	Streamlined eligibility is gone

The 330-day test above is for US citizens and green-card holders. Anyone else qualifies for the foreign track by failing the substantial presence test in any one of the three years (IRS, Streamlined Foreign Offshore). Quiet disclosure vs streamlined covers what amending on your own does to these options.

Who can still just file late FBARs?

Anyone who missed only the FBAR, not the income, and hasn’t heard from the IRS about it. Those two facts come first: the IRS’s file-late advice assumes no contact, and the reasonable-cause rule needs every account properly reported. Check all five points below before you file.

1. Every return for the years at issue was filed, and the income from these accounts, interest, dividends and gains, is on them.
2. The IRS hasn’t contacted you about a late FBAR, and you aren’t under civil examination or criminal investigation.
3. The failure wasn’t willful. You didn’t know, or you misunderstood the requirement.
4. You can value every account for each year: its highest balance, converted at the Treasury rate for December 31.
5. No other information returns are missing. A late Form 8938, 3520 or 5471 has its own route, below.

If all five hold, file each missing year through BSA E-Filing. FinCEN’s filing-late instructions say a report filed after October 15 of the following year asks for a reason from a drop-down list, and if none fits you “select ‘other’ and provide a written explanation.” Publication 5569 says that box takes up to 750 characters. The mechanics, account by account, are in how to file an FBAR.

How far back? The IRS can assess an FBAR penalty “at any time before the end of the 6-year period beginning on the date of the transaction” (31 USC 5321(b)(1)), and streamlined also uses six FBAR years, so six is the usual window. If a Form 8938 or 3520 is also late, the IRS’s delinquent international information return procedures cover it: Forms 3520 and 3520-A are filed on their own, and other forms go with an amended return. The DIIRSP guide has the detail.

What counts as reasonable cause for a late FBAR?

Ordinary business care and prudence. The IRS examiner manual, IRM 4.26.16, says a person has reasonable cause “when he committed that violation despite an exercise of ordinary business care and prudence,” and that the non-willful penalty “should not be imposed” if the violation was due to reasonable cause and accurate late or amended FBARs are filed.

The IRS doesn’t publish a list of accepted reasons. In our read, these facts carry weight:

• You relied on a preparer who had your full account information and never raised the FBAR.
• You didn’t know the form existed, it isn’t filed with the 1040, and your accounts were ordinary chequing, savings and registered plans.
• You filed as soon as you found out. The gap between learning and filing matters.
• The income was always on your returns. That doesn’t excuse the lateness, but it cuts against any suggestion you were hiding the accounts.

One fact works against you. Publication 5569 lists Schedule B, questions 7a and 7b, as part of how filers meet the FBAR requirement, so a “no” to the foreign account question on a return you signed is something your explanation has to deal with honestly.

Writing the 750 characters: say what you knew and when, why you didn’t know sooner, how you found out, and that you filed promptly after. Dates and facts, no apology. “My preparer did my 2019 to 2024 returns and never mentioned the FBAR. I learned of it in August 2026 and am filing every year now” is the right register.

When do you need Streamlined instead?

When income wasn’t reported or returns weren’t filed. A late FBAR fixes the FBAR and nothing else. The streamlined procedures exist for taxpayers whose failure to report income, pay tax and file information returns and FBARs was non-willful. They bring in three years of returns and six years of FBARs together.

Which track applies depends on the non-residency test, and you only need one of the three years to qualify:

• Abroad, citizen or green-card holder: no US abode and at least 330 full days outside the US “in any one or more of the most recent three years for which the U.S. tax return due date … has passed.”
• Abroad, anyone else: you didn’t meet the substantial presence test in any one of those years.
• In the US: none of the three years qualifies. The domestic track requires that you filed the original returns, and charges 5% of “the highest aggregate balance/value” of the assets in the penalty base (IRS, Streamlined Domestic Offshore).

On a streamlined submission, the FBARs are still filed late through BSA E-Filing, with “Other” as the reason and “Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures” in the box. If the unreported income was wages rather than account income, unreported employment income and late FBARs works through that case. What streamlined costs covers the fees.

How much could a late FBAR cost in penalties?

Nothing, if the IRS finds reasonable cause and the accounts are properly reported. Otherwise, the non-willful maximum is $16,536 per FBAR for penalties assessed on or after January 17, 2025, under 31 CFR 1010.821, counted per report after the Supreme Court’s Bittner decision.

• The examiner cap: total non-willful penalties across all open years are capped at 50% of the highest aggregate balance of the accounts involved (IRM 4.26.16.5.4.1).
• Willful: up to the greater of $165,353 or 50% of the account balance, per account. The manual caps the total at 100% of the highest aggregate balance.
• Discretion: the IRS says “assertion of penalties depends on facts and circumstances.”

The full table, the willful mitigation levels and the route-by-route comparison are in FBAR penalties: amounts and the decision tree.

Should I talk to my accountant about a late FBAR?

Yes, if anything beyond the FBAR might be wrong, or if the balances are large. If your returns were right and the accounts are a few ordinary Canadian accounts, many people file the late FBARs themselves. What’s worth a professional’s time is checking that the returns really were complete and writing the reasonable-cause explanation, since that text is what the IRS weighs.

Talk to someone before filing if any of these apply:

• You’re not sure the income was reported, for example TFSA income, Canadian fund distributions or RRSP growth handled differently than the IRS expects.
• There may be other missing forms, such as Form 8938 or Form 3520.
• The IRS has already written to you, or you’re under examination.
• You think the failure might look willful, for example a “no” on Schedule B with accounts you knew about. That’s a question for counsel before any filing.

If someone files for you, the IRS says to authorize them on FinCEN Form 114a, which you keep rather than send in. What FBAR filing costs compares doing it yourself with paying someone.

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