In fact, there are two
separate disclosure forms that may be required for taxpayers who hold
foreign financial (and other) assets overseas; each also has different
reporting rules. One is known as IRS Form 8938, and can be
attached to the relevant yearly Form 1040 tax return. The other is FinCen
Form 114 (a.k.a. FBAR) which can only be filed via the internet. The following
Internal Revenue Service webpage describes them in some detail, and provides
their dollar value reporting levels:
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/comparison-of-form-8938-and-fbar-requirements
Form 8938 is included in
TurboTax. FinCen Form 114 is not included in TurboTax, and you would need to access that reporting
webpage separately, if your foreign financial assets total over the
limit(s). Note that you can get to the FinCen reporting internet site directly
through the above IRS link.
With respect to filing these disclosure documents, and in direct
answer to your original question, IRS Form 8938 can be filing jointly,
and using the TurboTax program. With respect to FinCen Form 114 (the
FBAR requirement), you can file this document together, jointly, as a
married couple, so long as all of the foreign accounts you own are held
jointly. If some accounts are held in the name of one spouse only,
however, then you would each need to fill out your own, separate, Form
114.
This is according to the current (2016) FinCen Form 114 rules, which we researched for this answer. While the FBAR instructions may be somewhat hard to read on the topic of joint accounts, the preceding paragraph accurately summarizes them, with respect to joint account reporting, and the need to file one (or two) FinCen Forms 114.
Thank you for asking this important question.
