Form 8938

[Anna]

For married filing jointly and living in US: if the balance at a foreign bank account at any point during the year did not exceed $150,000.00 (converted from foreign currency per rules) and the balance at the end of the year is $100,000.43 does the Form 8938 need to be filed or is the amount rounded down to $100,000 and falls under the threshold and the form does not need to be filed? Thank you. Anna

[Anonymous_]

See https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8938#en_US_2020_publink55389wd0e790

@pk?

[pk]

@Anna  while I agree with @Anonymous_  that you can choose not to file the form 8938 ,but given  (a) dependency on the exchange rate and fluctuations thereof ,(b) your bank would report this anyways  ( assuming that most foreign banks are FATCA compliant ), (c) nil tax impact, (d) FBAR reporting anyways  and (e) onerous penalties  for wilful disregard of requirement to report, I would  humbly suggest  just spend a few extra minutes of  effort an report  this  -- you are too close for  comfort , especially if the bank is from a country IRS  wants to pay attention to .  It is safer to report  and get this over with , please

pk

[ShirlynW]

IRS Pub 17 page 14 states, you can round off cents to whole dollars on your returns and schedules. If you do round to the whole dollar, you must round all amounts. To round, drop amounts under 50 cents and increase amounts 50 to 99 cents to the next dollar.

Form 8938 is an informational return; I suggest filing one. That way, you will know there will not be a penalty for failure to file.