Forgot to report foreign bank interest

[dt1]

Hi

* I have been in the US since 2008 and on a H1b since 2010. I got married in Nov 2015 and my wife arrived in the US on Dec 15 2015. For 2015’s taxes, we filed taxes using ‘married filing jointly’ and treated her as a resident for tax purposes. 

* While filing 2015’s taxes, we did not realize that there were a few fixed deposit accounts on her name amounting to roughly $15,750 (which is above the limit of $10,000 for filing an FBAR); and did not file an FBAR. 

I assume we would need to file the FBAR for 2015 as well as amend 2015’s return to report the interest income from these accounts. I read that we cannot simply amend the return and would need to do a Streamlined procedures filing. We have deferred filing the 2016 taxes till this is resolved. Would we need to file a streamlined procedure filing or are there other options?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks a lot.

[bine22 · Accepted solution]

First, since she was a nonresident alien who elected to be treated as a resident alien, she would not be required to file an FBAR for the year she made the election. An NRA making the election is subject to the tax rules in title 26 of the IRRC, but the FBAR rules are in title 31.

So she would just start filing the FBAR for 2016 and onwards.

If she had interest income in that account (or dividends or any other worldwide income that wasn't reported), you would need to amend the return to include that income.