Is my spouse required to file FBAR?

[RossAngelos]

Situation is next: 

 My wife and I are filing a joint tax return for 2021.

1. I held cryptocurrency on foreign exchange - $250,000. This account is individually owned by me. 

2. My wife has foreign bank account - $2,000. This account is individually owned by her ( my spouse ).

We don't have any joint accounts. 

 We filed form 8938 and reported both - Crypto on foreign exchange and her bank account. 

Next, I filled out FBAR and reported only my crypto account with a max value of $250,000. 

Is my spouse required to file FBAR on her own? It seems like no because she owns only foreign bank with $2k and doesn't have any interest or ownership in my foreign crypto exchange. Is this correct? 

[ThomasM125]

You are correct, assuming you don't live in a community property state. If you do, then she may legally own half of your investments. Here's a list of community property states:

Community property states

[RossAngelos]

@ThomasM125Thanks for the reply. We live in California, which is a community property state. Does it mean she has to file FBAR separately and include her Bank account ($2k) plus my crypto account which is not jointly owned?

Edit: She acquired foreign bank account prior to our marriage and kept it open without any additional deposits.

I've acquired foreign crypto exchange account prior to our our marriage as well, however some crypto were acquired after our marriage.

[ThomasM125]

This is more of a legal question than a tax question, so I can't be too specific. But in general, property acquired before marriage is not community property and property acquired after marriage is community property, even if it is in the name of one spouse only. But you would have to do some research on California law to be sure.

[RossAngelos]

@ThomasM125  Thanks. But in terms of FBAR, do you think my spouse should file her own FBAR and report her bank account plus crypto foreign exchange that is on my name? 

Edit:

I was not able to find a lot of information about community property interest regarding FBAR requirements. The one thing I found is this article - https://www.bragertaxlaw.com/can-i-be-an-innocent-spouse.html Saying: 

Furthermore, just because you may have a community property interest in the foreign bank account that does not mean that you have a financial interest in the account. To put it another way, if your only stake in the foreign bank account is your community property interest you are not required to file an FBAR.

Unfortunately that's all I was able to find. Looking into FBAR instructions I was not able to find anything specific to "community property". They are talking about a joint account, however I don't think "community property" is anything close to a joint account. 

[RossAngelos]

Ok, after my call to FBAR agent they confirmed that if account is owned by me and it is my personal investment, just because we live in community property state my wife is no required to file FBAR.