I am permanent resident of the U.S. but live overseas (Japan) since August 2024 but my husband lives in the U.S. and lived in the States for the entire year in 2024. We want to file married filling jointly.
I have a bank account of more than $100,000 in Japan (under my name only and my spouse does/did not have a foreign bank account) have a few questions about reporting the foreign bank account and interest earned on that account.
- Even if I am the only one who lives overseas and not my spouse, would we still be considered as “Taxpayers living outside the United States” if we are filling married filling jointly?
- Form 8938: according with the related instructions, since I am a “specified individual” (a permanent resident), but I am not sure if I met the reporting threshold, which depends on the answer on my question #1 above. Even if only one of the spouses lives abroad, we are considered as taxpayers living outside of the US for tax purposes, the reporting threshold is $400,000 or $600,000, meaning that I won’t have to report my foreign earned interest income and bank account?
- Are there separate forms to report 1. interest income and 2. foreign bank account or just form 8938?
- For the interest income earned my foreign bank account, I only made $59, do I still report this such low amount?
- Do I need to file FBAR based on my situation noted above? If so, am I filing BSA or BOI?
