Fbar reporting for saving certificate

[Sofyan]

Hi 

I am preparing to submit the Fbar report but I am so confused I have saving account in foreign bank and I purchased saving certificates from this bank and the bank deducted the saving certificates amounts from this account and all saving certificates interest added to this account 

my question should I report the bank account and all saving certificates separately or only I have to report the bank account 

[tagteam]

@pk

[pk]

@Sofyan ,  as I understand  the savings certificates, CDs etc. are still  within the same  bank , just under a different  bin -- just not accessible to you on a day to basis i.e. it is your monies   but not available  ( without penalty ) for a time period. Thus , to me this is still part of what you hold in that  bank account.    For aggregate  / total holdings these are counted ( for FBAR purposes )  but not quite liquid.  So it counts for FBAR / FATCA purposes of total holding in that bank.  I would include these under the bank & account name ( for FBAR purposes  )  i.e. report the total amount.

Here is a small cutting out of IRS  doc :  

"Financial Account
Financial accounts include:
• Bank accounts such as savings and checking accounts, and time deposits,
• Securities accounts, such as brokerage accounts, securities derivatives
accounts, or other financial instruments accounts;
• Commodity futures or options accounts;
• Insurance or annuity policies with a cash value (such as a whole life
insurance policy);
• Mutual funds or similar pooled funds (i.e. a fund available to the public with
a regular net asset value determination and regular redemptions), and;
• Any other accounts maintained in a foreign financial institution or with a
person performing the services of a financial institution  "

Does this help and/or do you need more assistance ?

pk

[villaproject12]

To be reportable, the total value on any single day in the year has to greater than $10k.

If the highest total in one account, use that value. On the other hand, if the certificates are in a separate account, I suggest treating each account individually; this just to be on the safe side, even if only one account is over $10k.

[Sofyan]

Thank you for you reply ,so if I will report them under the same account then how I can calculate the maximum value let me give you an example 

Let us say my account balance was 25000 before I purchased the certificate 

then I purchased the certificate and the account balance became zero

then they added interest 1000

then I returned this certificate so they added 25000

Then I added 1600 to my account

and then purchased another certificate 15000

also I want to add a side note that when I review the certificate number is similar to the bank account number 

so if I report all separately and report the savings certificate under other category is there any risk for that?  I just think loudly with you 

I want to be on the safe side 

[pk]

@Sofyan , per your example

 :

 Checking/ Saving account  amounts  -----   25,000  ->  0  ->  1000 -> 26,000 -> 27,600 ->12,600

Certificate account amounts -------------------  0 ->             25,000 --> 25,000 ->  0    - >  0  ->  15,000

Thus  if you were to report  these  two accounts   as ONE account  then max value for the year  is 27,600

If on the other hand you choose to show these as two different accounts  in the same bank

Savings/Checking  Max for the year -- 27,600

Certificate account max value for the year ---- 25, 000

In my view since the certificates  ( fixed for a period ) and Checking/Savings accounts are in the same bank and  describable  as two bins  in the same bank,  I would  declare these as ONE account  with a max value of  27, 600.

Does this make sense ?   Is there more I can do for  you ?

pk

[Sofyan]

Thank you very much, it’s clear for me