Does My FBAR Need to Include My Spouse’s Bank Account(s)?
American Citizens, Residents, and Green Card Holders with foreign financial accounts with an aggregate value of $10K or more are required to file the Form FinCEN 114 (FBAR) to report these accounts to the United States Department of Treasury.
Whether or not you are required to include your spouse’s foreign financial accounts on your FBAR depends on a variety of circumstances.
Along with American Citizens, Residents and Green Card Holders, US corporations, partnerships, and LLCs are also required to file FinCEN Form 114 to report foreign financial accounts. You must report all foreign bank accounts over which you have ownership, financial interest, or signing authority.
You may be allowed to include your spouse’s foreign financial accounts on the same FBAR if you own the accounts jointly. If you do not include your spouse name on FinCen form 144 while reporting account owned jointly, then your spouse will have to file his/her own FinCEN Form 114 and report the same accounts under her name. The option to file only one FBAR per family is available if your spouse does not have individual accounts.
If your spouse has separate foreign financial accounts in his/her own name and the total aggregate value of all the foreign bank accounts (including those jointly owned) equals $10K or more at any time during the calendar year, you will have to file 2 different FBARs – even if your joint accounts are reported on both forms.
If your spouse is a non-US Person, then you are not required to include your spouse’s foreign financial accounts on your FinCEN form 114
If your spouse is a citizen of another country and does not have US Citizenship or American Residency and you do not have signing authority (or any other name association) over his/her foreign financial accounts, you will not be required to include these accounts on your FBAR, FinCEN Form 114. Furthermore, your spouse will not be required to file FinCEN Form 114.