form 8938 for Married Filing Jointly.

[liuxuhan2021]

Hey,

I want to file a tax return together with my wife.

Both of us have some foreign checking accounts separately not jointly. 

How can we file form 8938 individually in TurboTax? 

When I follow the steps, it puts our names in one form (names on the return) and cannot differentiate who owns which account. I don't think this is correct 

Thanks

[DaveF1006 · Accepted solution]

Yes, it does state in the instructions for 8938 "If you and your spouse file a joint income tax return and, therefore, would file one combined Form 8938 for the tax year, include the value of the asset jointly owned with your spouse only once to determine the total value of all of the specified foreign financial assets you and your spouse own".

if you file your returns jointly, you can file only one 8938 according to IRS instructions.

[liuxuhan2021]

Hey Thanks for your reply.

So if we only have one form, how to differentiate who owns which account?

or does it mean in this case, we have to fill tax returns separately in order to fill out two 8938 forms? 

[ThomasM125]

You would enter the assets you own plus the assets your spouse owns plus the assets you own together. So, you don't need to file separate Form 8938's.

[liuxuhan2021]

just curious, so we do not need to indicate who owns which accounts? how does IRS know about that or they don't need to know?

[RalphH1]

Since the 8938 actually accompanies your federal income tax return, your filing status determines the reporting thresholds as well as the way you report the assets (just yours for single and married filing separately, and all combined for a joint return). So yes, you would definitely have to file separate tax returns (often not a good idea) if you wanted to file separate 8938s.

Assuming you do file jointly, there is indeed no distinction made between the assets owned by the two spouses (as you can see on the actual form). There are a couple of “account jointly owned with spouse” checkboxes, but otherwise they’ve decided this is something they don’t need info about. Thanks @liuxuhan2021!