FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) for a foreign-owned LLC

Much of what's written about the FBAR is for Americans living abroad and their personal accounts. Your position is different. The rule usually reaches your company rather than you, so the question to answer is whether the company holds money outside the US.

FinCEN's rules name three kinds of US person: US citizens, US residents, and entities formed under US law, LLCs included. Your Wyoming or Delaware LLC is one from the day the state approves it.

For income tax, the IRS treats a single-member LLC as a disregarded entity and looks through it to you. FinCEN says that makes no difference to the FBAR. A disregarded entity files its own FBAR when it passes the test.

You're a US person only as a US citizen or a US resident. Residence here follows the tax tests: a green card, or enough days in the US under the substantial presence test. Owning a US company doesn't make you a resident. So a founder in Lagos who owns a Wyoming LLC has no FBAR of their own, even in a year the LLC files one.

It's different if you're a US citizen or a green-card holder living abroad. You file your own FBAR if your accounts outside the US, counted together with the LLC's, held more than $10,000 between them at any time in the year. The LLC's accounts go on it because FinCEN counts an account held by an entity you own more than 50% of as yours. The LLC still files its own.

An account counts when it's a financial account located outside the US. That covers bank accounts, securities and brokerage accounts, and a few others, such as an insurance policy with a cash value. Location decides it. An account at a branch of a US bank outside the US counts. An account at a US branch of a foreign bank doesn't.

Wise Business

Wise's US business terms say a US company's account is with Wise US Inc., a Delaware company, and that money received to its account details is credited to that account whatever the currency. The money itself sits in bank accounts held by Wise and its affiliates, and the terms don't say where. They also say a transfer paid in a currency other than US dollars may be handled by a different Wise company, under that company's licences. FinCEN and the IRS haven't said how the FBAR treats a Wise balance. Ask Wise in writing where your euro or pound balance is held, and let an accountant decide with that answer.

Payoneer, PayPal and Stripe

When we checked on 29 October 2026, we found no FinCEN or IRS guidance that names Payoneer, PayPal or Stripe. The FBAR asks where an account is, so the answer for each depends on which of the provider's companies holds your balance, and in which country. Ask the provider, then have an accountant who files FBARs make the call.

Crypto exchanges

FinCEN's Notice 2020-2, from December 2020, says a foreign account holding only virtual currency isn't reportable on the FBAR for now. An account that also holds other reportable assets, such as cash, can be. In the same notice, FinCEN said it intends to propose adding virtual currency to the rules. We found no final rule doing so when we checked on 29 October 2026.

The test adds up each account's highest balance in the year. The highest points don't have to fall on the same day. Convert each one to dollars at the Treasury's exchange rate for the last day of the year, and round up to the next whole dollar. If the total is over $10,000, the company files, and it reports each of its accounts abroad.

The highest balance can be a reasonable estimate, and statements can be used if they fairly show it. An account held in US dollars counts at its highest dollar balance.

Take a Wyoming LLC with two accounts abroad in 2025. A euro account at a bank in Portugal peaked at €7,000. A pound account at a bank in the UK peaked at £3,000. The Treasury's rates for 31 December 2025 were 0.851 euros and 0.743 pounds to the dollar.

Neither account passed $10,000, and their peaks could have fallen months apart. The company still owed an FBAR for 2025, listing both. For 2026, use the Treasury's rate for 31 December 2026.

Signature authority means a person can move money out of an account by instructing the bank or provider directly. A US person with signature authority over an account abroad files an FBAR for it, even with no money of their own in it, when the accounts they own or can sign on held more than $10,000 between them at any time in the year.

• You sign on the company's account abroad. The company owns the account, so the company files. You aren't a US person, so your signature gives you nothing to file.
• A US person signs on the company's account abroad. Say a co-founder lives in Texas, or a US bookkeeper can send payments from the account. That person files their own FBAR, if the $10,000 test is passed, listing the company's account as one they can sign on. FinCEN's exceptions cover staff of banks, regulated financial firms and listed companies, which a small LLC's team isn't.

1. 1

   Register the company

   The FBAR is filed online, on FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System. A person filing for themselves can use it without registering. FinCEN's filing instructions say institutions must register, and its e-filing FAQ counts every non-individual as one, so the company registers first.

2. 2

   Fill in Form 114 for the company

   Under type of filer, an LLC ticks Fiduciary or other and writes "limited liability company", adding "(D.E.)" if the IRS disregards it. The company's EIN is its US taxpayer number. Then add each account abroad: the provider's name and address, the account number and the highest value in dollars.

3. 3

   Sign it

   The person filing for the company signs it electronically and enters their title, such as member or manager.

4. 4

   Or authorise an accountant

   An attorney, CPA or enrolled agent can file it from their own registered account. You sign FinCEN Form 114a to authorise them and keep it with your records. It isn't sent to FinCEN.

5. 5

   Keep the records

   For each account, keep the name it's held in, its number, the provider's name and address, the type of account and its highest value. Keep them for five years from the 15 April due date, or from the day you filed if that was later. A copy of the filed FBAR helps.

The FBAR for 2026 is due on 15 April 2027. If it isn't filed by then, FinCEN extends it to 15 October 2027 without being asked. When 15 April falls on a weekend or a holiday, the date moves to the next working day, as it does for a tax return.

These are FinCEN's maximum civil penalties for penalties assessed from 17 January 2025:

• Non-wilful: up to $16,536 for each violation.
• Wilful: up to $165,353 or half the account's balance at the time of the violation, whichever is more.

Those are 2025's inflation-adjusted figures. In April 2026, the White House Office of Management and Budget told agencies there would be no adjustment for 2026, and to keep using 2025's amounts. FinCEN's filing instructions say no penalty is imposed for a non-wilful failure when there was reasonable cause and the balance is properly reported. Wilful violations can also be criminal.

The Supreme Court limited the non-wilful penalty in Bittner v. United States, decided on 28 February 2023. Mr Bittner's five late reports had left out accounts. The government counted a penalty for each of the 272 accounts involved and asked for $2.72 million. The Court held that the non-wilful maximum applies to each report, not each account. So a missed year is one report, however many accounts it should have listed. Some wilful penalties, for failing to report an account, are still measured account by account.

If the company missed a year, file the missing FBAR through BSA E-Filing. The form asks why it's late and lets you pick a reason from a list or write your own. If several years are missing, or the balances were large, see an accountant before you file.

Every foreign-owned single-member LLC files Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120 every year, even with no income. The FBAR is owed only in a year the company's accounts abroad pass $10,000. A company that banks only in the US files Form 5472 and no FBAR.

The Form 5472 penalty calculator works out your due date and what a late form costs.

Form 8938 is the IRS form for foreign financial assets under FATCA. It's filed with an income tax return, by "specified individuals" and "specified domestic entities".

A non-resident owner isn't a specified individual, unless they choose to be treated as a US resident for a joint return or are a bona fide resident of American Samoa or Puerto Rico. The IRS counts a disregarded entity's assets as its owner's. The entities that file are closely held US corporations and partnerships with at least half their income, or half their assets, passive, and certain trusts.

We read that as leaving out both a foreign-owned single-member LLC and its non-resident owner. The instructions don't name this case, so ask an accountant to confirm it for yours. If you're a US citizen or resident, Form 8938 can apply to you. For an unmarried person living in the US, it starts at foreign assets worth more than $50,000 on the last day of the year, or more than $75,000 at any time in it.