FBAR, Form 8938 and Other Forms Pub 17 Leaves Out

FBAR and Form 8938 are the two foreign-account reports most readers with ties to Canada or India need, and IRS Publication 17 covers only one of them. The 2025 edition has a short Form 8938 reminder on printed page 3 and a note on page 20 about the 40% penalty for an underpayment tied to an undisclosed foreign financial asset; the 2023 and 2024 editions are the same. It never mentions the FBAR or Forms 8621, 3520 or 5471, which the IRS lists in Publication 54 (pages 11 to 13). This page maps those forms and links to our FBAR guide and Form 8938 guide. These are unofficial study notes in our own words; the IRS publication controls.

What Pub 17 says and where it stops

Page 3 says a U.S. citizen with foreign income must report it all unless a law or treaty exempts it, wherever they live, and that foreign financial assets may mean Form 8938. Page 20 ties the 40% accuracy penalty to undisclosed foreign financial assets. Pub 17 says nothing more on these forms. The IRS's own list of the other forms is in Publication 54, which names FinCEN Forms 114 and 105, then Forms 8938, 5471, 926, 8865, 8858, 8621, 8854, 3520 and 3520-A, among others. The form instructions hold the rules. Our guides cover each one, summarised here.

Which form fits my situation?

How do the FBAR and Form 8938 differ?

Married filing separately uses the single levels. Both convert at the Treasury rate for the last day of the year. An asset reported on a timely Form 3520, 5471, 8621 or 8865 need not be listed again on Form 8938, but its value still counts toward the level.

What are the Canadian and Indian counterparts?

• Canada, Form T1135. For Canadian residents holding specified foreign property that cost more than CAD 100,000 in total at any time in the year. It goes with the T1 return, and late filing costs $25 a day for up to 100 days, at least $100 and at most $2,500. See the T1135 guide.
• India, Schedule FA. For residents who are not "not ordinarily resident". The department's guide for assessment year 2025-26 (Income-tax Act, 1961) lists foreign assets held at any time in the calendar year ending December 31 and states no minimum value; your Chartered Accountant confirms the period under the Income-tax Act, 2025. See the Schedule FA guide.

Neither replaces a U.S. report; the three-form comparison shows them side by side.

Which Canadian and Indian accounts and plans are reportable?

Indian NRE, NRO and deposit accounts are ordinary foreign bank accounts. The IRS names the RRSP and TFSA as reportable on the FBAR. The retirement-plan exception covers U.S. IRAs and 401(a), 403(a) and 403(b) plans, not a foreign plan you hold. The EPF, PPF and NPS are not named, so each needs a judgment.

On Form 8938 a foreign pension plan is reported once, at fair market value (use distributions received, or zero, if the value is unknown). Foreign social security equivalents are not specified assets. A flat you own directly is not on the list; shares of a company that owns it are. For Form 3520, the instructions exempt Canadian RRSPs, RRIFs and other plans within Rev. Proc. 2014-55, plus some tax-favored foreign trusts under Rev. Proc. 2020-17; the TFSA, EPF, PPF and NPS are not named, which our retirement accounts page takes up.

What are the penalties and due dates?

Form 8621 has no stand-alone dollar penalty in its instructions, but a missing form can keep the assessment period open. Form 3520-A for a trust you own is due March 15 for a calendar-year trust, and extending your own return does not extend it; only a Form 7004 filed with the trust's own number does.

What if I missed earlier years?

If the IRS has not contacted you, the IRS says to file late FBARs as soon as possible with an explanation, and its FBAR guide says no penalty is imposed if the account is properly reported and the IRS finds the failure was due to reasonable cause. For non-willful failures, the streamlined procedures require 3 years of returns and 6 years of FBARs. The foreign offshore track suits citizens and green-card holders with no U.S. abode who spent 330 full days outside the U.S. in at least one of the last 3 years, and carries no penalty if followed correctly. Domestic offshore filers pay 5% of the highest year-end foreign asset balance. The old offshore program closed on September 28, 2018. If willfulness is a worry, see a tax attorney before filing anything.

By tax year: 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026

2026 planning figures; Pub 17 (2026) is not yet published, and the federal regulation table for FBAR penalties, current to October 22, 2026, still shows the January 17, 2025 figures. The FBAR $10,000 level, the Form 8938 levels, the $100,000 gift level and the $25,000 ($50,000 joint) Form 8621 exception stay the same across these years.

A short example

Sunita, a green-card holder in Batavia, single, tax year 2025. At December 31, 2025 she holds an Indian NRO account, a Toronto TFSA and a Toronto RRSP. Using the Treasury rates of 89.854 rupees and 1.369 Canadian dollars per dollar:

1. Highest balances. NRO INR 1,200,000 / 89.854 = $13,355. TFSA CAD 40,000 / 1.369 = $29,218. RRSP CAD 25,200 / 1.369 = $18,408. The rounded total is $60,981, over $10,000, so an FBAR is required.
2. Year-end values. NRO INR 1,100,000 / 89.854 = $12,242. TFSA CAD 38,000 / 1.369 = $27,757. RRSP CAD 22,000 / 1.369 = $16,070. The rounded total is $56,069, over $50,000.
3. Form 8938. The year-end level is crossed, so Form 8938 is required even though $60,981 is below $75,000. She files both, and a missed Form 8938 would start at $10,000.

She is not a Canadian or Indian resident, so no T1135 or Schedule FA applies.

Mistakes to avoid

• Treating Form 8938 as a substitute for the FBAR, or the reverse.
• Using the year-end balance for the FBAR instead of the highest balance.
• Assuming the IRA exception covers an RRSP or EPF.
• Attaching Form 3520 to the return instead of mailing it.
• Believing treaty residence cancels the FBAR.

Check yourself

Question 1 (tax year 2025): A reader holds an Indian NRE account with a highest balance of INR 500,000 and a Canadian chequing account at CAD 6,000, using 89.854 and 1.369. Is an FBAR required?

Answer: INR 500,000 / 89.854 = $5,564.58 and CAD 6,000 / 1.369 = $4,382.76. The total, $9,947.34, is not over $10,000, so no.

Question 2 (tax year 2025): A couple filing jointly qualifies as living abroad. Their foreign assets are $350,000 at year-end and $420,000 at the peak. Must they file Form 8938?

Answer: No. The joint-abroad levels are over $400,000 at year-end or over $600,000 at any time. An FBAR is still likely.

Question 3 (tax year 2023): Nobody filed the 2023 FBAR covering three accounts. A non-willful penalty is assessed on March 3, 2025. What is the maximum?

Answer: $16,536, because the 2025 table applies on that assessment date and the limit is per report. It is not 3 x $16,536 = $49,608.

Question 4 (tax year 2025): A resident receives $85,000 in March and $20,000 in October from her parents in Pune and files Form 3520 three months late. What is the gift penalty?

Answer: The gifts total $105,000, over $100,000, so Form 3520 is due. Three months at 5% is 15%: 15% x $105,000 = $15,750, before any reasonable-cause relief.

Question 5 (tax year 2025): A green-card holder claims Canadian treaty residence. Is the FBAR still required?

Answer: Yes. Treaty residence does not remove the FBAR duty for a U.S. person.

How we can help

We prepare Form 8938 and the FBAR, review Forms 8621, 3520 and 5471, and plan clean-up of missed years for clients in Aurora and the Fox Valley. We coordinate with your Canadian CPA for the T1135 and your Indian Chartered Accountant for Schedule FA, and we do not prepare Canadian or Indian returns. See foreign account and asset reporting and IRS and state representation.

Frequently asked questions

General information only. It is not tax, legal, accounting or immigration advice for your situation, and rules change; confirm the current rules with the official source or a licensed professional in the relevant country.