US citizens living in Canada need to file a form annually to report their Canadian bank information. This form is referred to as a Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR).  The FBAR form reports foreign (non-US) bank accounts to FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, an agency of the US Treasury Department.

Who must File the FBAR form?

US citizens living in Canada normally hold Canadian bank and investment accounts. United States citizens are required to file an FBAR if they had financial interest in or signature authority over at least one financial account located in Canada and the aggregate value of all foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time in the year.

What About Exchange Rates?

FinCEN requires that you convert the balance of your Canadian financial accounts to US dollars when reported. FinCEN requires you to use the Bank of Canada foreign average exchange rate as of December 31.

What are the requirements for filing?

This is an aggregate amount— meaning, if you had $5,000 in one account and $7,000 in another, both accounts must be reported. Even if your account(s) only hit $10,000 for one day, FBAR must be filed.

Foreign financial accounts include, checking, savings, securities held with a financial institution.

How is it filed?

FBAR is only filed electronically via the BSA e-filing system no paper copies are accepted. The FBAR deadline now follows the US tax deadlines, which means US expats need to file their taxes by June 15 but there is an automatic extension until October 15th.

If FBARs are not filed the IRS penalties can be up to $10,000 per violation for FBAR.