FBAR catches you at $10,000. Form 8938 at $200,000. Most Indian-Americans trip both.

FBAR (FinCEN 114) is filed with the Treasury under the Bank Secrecy Act, and runs alongside Schedule FA on your Indian ITR. The FBAR threshold is aggregate balance over US$10,000 across all foreign accounts at any point during the calendar year. Filed electronically by 15 April with automatic extension to 15 October.

The IRS 8938 disclosure is attached to your 1040 under FATCA. The threshold for a single filer living abroad is US$200,000 at year-end or US$300,000 at any point during the year. Higher thresholds apply for joint filers and US-domestic filers.

These aren't substitutes. You can owe FBAR and not the 8938, you can owe both, or in rare cases the 8938 alone. For most Indian-Americans with NRO + NRE + brokerage holdings, you owe both.

The Indian side adds Schedule FA on your ITR, which requires foreign-asset disclosure for assets above the Black Money Act 2015 ₹20 lakh safe harbour from September 2025 onward.

Aggregate balance is the trigger. If at any moment in the calendar year your combined foreign account balances exceeded US$10,000, you owe FBAR. It doesn't matter if the balance was momentary, and it doesn't matter if you closed the account.

For an Indian-American with a ₹50 lakh NRO FD (~US$60,000), a ₹15 lakh NRE FD (~US$18,000), and a ₹10 lakh demat (~US$12,000), aggregate balance hits roughly US$90,000. FBAR triggered comfortably.

File through bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov. The form lists every foreign account (number, peak balance, financial institution name and address). Your spouse's joint accounts count too if you're jointly liable under US tax filing.

FBAR doesn't require you to pay any tax. It's a disclosure form. The penalty is for not filing, not for owing.

Single filers living abroad: $200,000 at year-end or $300,000 peak. Married joint living abroad: $400,000 / $600,000.

What counts as a 'specified foreign financial asset'? NRO/NRE balances, Indian brokerage accounts, mutual fund holdings, EPF balances, foreign-currency-denominated bonds.

What doesn't count: Indian real estate held directly (not through a foreign entity), foreign currency cash you hold personally, art and collectibles. So a ₹3 crore Bengaluru flat owned in your name doesn't go on the 8938. A ₹50 lakh REIT holding in a foreign brokerage does.

The 8938 attaches to your 1040 and runs parallel to FBAR. Many of the same accounts get listed on both. The IRS deliberately set up the duplication as a cross-check.

Three regulators see your offshore data: FinCEN (FBAR), the IRS (8938 + 1040), and the Indian CBDT (Schedule FA + ITR).

Under the India-US FATCA Inter-Governmental Agreement, the IRS gets your Indian account balances annually. Under CRS, Indian banks report your US account balances to the CBDT. So the three views should match.

When they don't, scrutiny follows. An Indian-American who files an 8938 listing $250k of NRO/NRE but who didn't disclose those accounts on Schedule FA gets flagged on the Indian side because the CBDT receives the FATCA data feed and runs cross-checks during processing.

The pattern we see most often: people remember FBAR (because it's high-frequency tax-prep advice in the US), forget the 8938 (because it's annual and detailed), and skip Schedule FA entirely (because their Indian CA filed a basic ITR-2 without it).

Fix the order: file all three each year, even if the disclosure overlaps.

FBAR non-willful failure: $10,000 per violation per year, capped at $50,000 for non-willful cases under the IRS streamlined programme. Willful failure: greater of $129,210 or 50% of the account balance, per year.

8938 failure: $10,000 initial + $10,000 for every 30 days after IRS notice, up to $50,000 + 40% of any underpaid tax.

Schedule FA omission under the Black Money Act 2015: ₹10 lakh per year + 30% tax on the undisclosed asset value + 90% additional penalty in willful cases. The September 2025 safe harbour at ₹20 lakh exempts movable foreign assets below the threshold but real estate and shares above the threshold still need disclosure.

For an Indian-American with $400k of NRO holdings undisclosed for 3 years across all three regimes, total exposure can run $400,000+ before any criminal exposure. Most cases settle through streamlined disclosure at single-digit percentages of the principal.

The IRS Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures cover taxpayers living abroad who failed to file FBAR + 8938 non-willfully. Submit the last 3 years of amended 1040s, last 6 years of FBARs, and a non-willful certification.

There's no penalty under streamlined for taxpayers living abroad, only the back tax owed plus interest. For most Indian-Americans the back tax is small (the income reported on Schedule B was correct; only the disclosure was missing).

Domestic streamlined exists too, but it charges a 5% offshore penalty on the highest aggregate offshore balance. Avoid it if you can.

On the Indian side, Section 119(2)(b) gives you a parallel 6-year window to file revised ITRs adding Schedule FA. CBDT acceptance rate has been roughly 90% for non-willful cases in our experience over the past 4 years.

We coordinate the Indian side: Schedule FA filings for current and past years under Section 119(2)(b), Form 10F refile, NRO interest TDS recovery via the 15% Article 11 treaty rate, and AO correspondence under Section 288.

We don't file your 1040 or your FBAR. We work with US-side enrolled agents on demand, but most Indian-American clients have a US-side accountant already. We hand off documentation that lines up cleanly across both sides.

Fee: 15% of recovered Indian TDS, contingent. Schedule FA filing alongside Section 119(2)(b) condonation runs ₹4,999 flat per past year added. Annual Schedule FA filing as part of regular ITR is ₹2,499 flat.

If you've missed years on Schedule FA and you're worried about Black Money Act exposure, book free CA appointment for a 15-minute walk-through of the streamlined-style cleanup on the Indian side.

Q: I'm a US citizen but I haven't lived in the US in 5 years. Do I still owe FBAR?

A: Yes. FBAR is a US-citizen + US-resident obligation, not an in-country obligation. As long as you're a US passport holder or green-card holder, you owe annual FBAR regardless of where you live.

Q: My NRE interest is exempt under Section 10(4)(ii). Does that change FBAR or the 8938?

A: No. NRE balances still count as 'foreign financial assets' for FATCA purposes regardless of their tax-exempt status in India. The exemption is on income tax, not on disclosure.

Q: I have a ₹2 crore Bengaluru flat. Schedule FA, the 8938, FBAR, all of them?

A: Schedule FA yes (above the ₹20 lakh safe harbour). The 8938 no (real estate held directly is excluded). FBAR no (FBAR is bank-account-only). The Bengaluru flat shows up only on the Indian side.

Q: I had $11,000 peak in 2023 across all NRO accounts and missed FBAR. Penalty?

A: Almost certainly streamlined-eligible. Non-willful, under-the-radar amount, easy cleanup. File 6 years of FBAR backfill + last 3 years of amended 1040s + the non-willful certification. Penalty under streamlined for foreign filers: $0. Book free CA appointment if you want us to coordinate with a US-side EA.

Q: Does India's Schedule FA share data automatically with the IRS?

A: Indirectly via FATCA. Indian bank balances of US persons are reported to the CBDT, which forwards aggregated data to the IRS. So the IRS already knows your Indian balances even if you didn't file the 8938. Match the disclosure proactively.