My wife and I are filing our first joint tax return, which is also her first tax return in the US. She is from Singapore, where she has:
- CPF (a retirement account, mandated by the government)
- Some insurance policies that she pays into each month.
The total amount of these is between U.S. $10k and $100k. She has transferred most or all of her savings to US accounts.
We consulted an accountant who is from overseas (based in the U.S.) and has fairly extensive experience with FBAR. (We found him because he had advertised helping others file FBAR at an international store we frequent.) He reviewed the recent statements of these accounts and told us that we do not need to file FBAR. He also said the CPF money is not taxable until she takes it out, which she can't do for a while.
I'm confused about this because, as I am going through TurboTax and the IRS's documentation, it looks like we do need to file. I'm not expecting him to give us TurboTax support, so I thought this was a good question for this forum.
Here's what I put in TurboTax:
- At "Tell Us About Any Foreign Bank Accounts", I selected:
- "I had a bank, broker, or other financial account in a foreign country"
- "I signed on, or had other authority, over [it]"
- Value over $10k: Yes
- Then TurboTax told me "You need to file a report" (FBAR). I selected the country (Singapore).
- TurboTax took me to a "Tell Us About Any Foreign Trusts" screen. My wife doesn't have any of these, as far as we're aware. So I said "None of the above".
- The next screen asked if we have any foreign financial assets, including bank or investment accounts. I said:
- Yes, we do have these
- No, we did not live in a foreign country.
- Then there is a screen that says "About the Amount of Your Foreign Financial Assets". I checked "No", it was not worth more than $100k (average) or $150k (at any time) in 2019.
- Now TurboTax says, "Based on what you told us, it turns out you don't need to report your foreign financial assets."
The two statements in bold seem to contradict themselves. Why would TurboTax say this? Do we need to file FBAR?
