United Way’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program in Orange County Needs Volunteers
The Value of a Tax LLM After Your First Job: Part 2.2 of “Is Getting a Tax LLM a Good Idea?”
As noted in a prior post (here), H.R. 3236 became Public Law No. 114-41 and provided several directives to the Secretary of the Treasury to issue regulations providing for maximum extensions of several different tax deadlines, including the FBAR and Form 3520-A deadlines, and providing for an April 15 deadline for these forms. FINCEN has now clarified that the maximum 6-month extension on the FBAR will be automatic.
The full text of FINCEN’s press release (which can be found by clicking here) is as follows:
New Due Date for FBARS
The new annual due date for filing Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) for foreign financial accounts is April 15. This date change was mandated by the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015, Public Law 114-41 (the Act). Specifically, section 2006(b)(11) of the Act changes the FBAR due date to April 15 to coincide with the Federal income tax filing season. The Act also mandates a maximum six-month extension of the filing deadline. To implement the statute with minimal burden to the public and FinCEN, FinCEN will grant filers failing to meet the FBAR annual due date of April 15 an automatic extension to October 15 each year. Accordingly, specific requests for this extension are not required. (Please note: The due date for FBAR filings for foreign financial accounts maintained during calendar year 2016 is April 18, 2017, consistent with the Federal income tax due date.)
(This was last updated 12/22/16 and the latest rules should always be checked as they seem to change often.)
Daniel Layton, the author of this post, is the principal of Tax Attorney OC.