FBAR FATCA Portugal: Reporting Portuguese Accounts as an American

If you are a U.S. citizen or green card holder with accounts in Portugal, you may owe two separate reports: the FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) when your foreign accounts together exceeded 10,000 dollars at any time in the year, and Form 8938 (FATCA) when your foreign financial assets pass higher thresholds. The IRS says filing one does not relieve you of the other, and each has its own penalties.

Our guide on whether Americans still file US taxes from Portugal gives the overview and a short table of the two thresholds. This article goes deeper: which accounts count, joint accounts and signing rights, how the two forms differ, the filing steps and what the IRS says about penalties. It reports what the official pages say on the day we read them, and it is not tax advice.

What we read, and what the date of this guide refers to

We read the pages named at the end on 18 October 2026. The IRS pages show their own “last reviewed or updated” dates: 24 September 2026 for the FATCA overview, 20 September for who files Form 8938, 19 September for the FATCA summary and the Form 8938 and FBAR comparison, 17 August for the Form 8938 questions and answers, 30 July for the FBAR page, 11 July for the streamlined procedures, 30 April for the Form 8938 instructions and 18 June for FATCA information for individuals. The newest, 24 September 2026, is the date of the information here.

Two of our sources are older and say so: the FBAR Reference Guide (Publication 5569) is marked Rev. 3-2022, and FinCEN’s electronic filing requirements for the FBAR are dated January 2017. We use them for definitions and filing steps and flag where they are the only source. The FinCEN BSA E-Filing site itself is a script-rendered page that returned no readable text to us, so we did not read the filing screens.

Who has to file an FBAR, and who has to file Form 8938?

The two forms have different filers, different thresholds and different recipients.

Source for the table: the IRS comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR requirements, the FBAR page, the Form 8938 pages and Publication 5569.

For Form 8938, the IRS defines a taxpayer living abroad as a U.S. citizen whose tax home is in a foreign country and who is either a bona fide resident of a foreign country for an uninterrupted period that includes the entire tax year, or a U.S. citizen or resident physically present in a foreign country or countries at least 330 days in 12 consecutive months ending in the tax year. The FATCA summary page words this more narrowly, as a citizen with a foreign tax home present abroad at least 330 days out of 12 months. The higher joint thresholds, the IRS says, apply even if only one spouse resides abroad.

Does this apply to a Briton? The IRS pages speak of U.S. citizens, residents and green card holders. Publication 5569 gives the example of a green card holder who is a British citizen and elects to be taxed as a UK resident under a tax treaty: he is a U.S. person for the FBAR, because “Tax treaties with the U.S. do not affect FBAR filing obligations.” A Briton with no U.S. status is not described by these pages.

Which Portuguese accounts count?

For the FBAR, the IRS says an account at a financial institution located outside the United States is generally a foreign financial account, and that whether it produced taxable income has no effect. Publication 5569 lists the financial accounts that count:

• bank accounts such as savings and checking accounts, and time deposits
• securities accounts, such as brokerage accounts
• commodity futures or options accounts
• insurance or annuity policies with a cash value
• mutual funds or similar pooled funds available to the public
• any other account with a foreign financial institution or a person performing its services

It is the location of the account, not the nationality of the institution, that decides. An account at a branch of a U.S. bank physically in Germany is foreign; an account at a branch of a French bank in Texas is not. By the same logic a Portuguese bank account is a foreign account, wherever the bank’s owner is from. The FBAR value is the maximum value during the year (a reasonable approximation of the greatest value), for which Publication 5569 allows periodic statements issued at least quarterly if they fairly reflect it.

The IRS comparison table gives, side by side:

For a retiree or a worker, two points from the IRS pages stand out. The Form 8938 FAQ says an interest in a foreign pension or deferred compensation plan is reportable once you pass the threshold, while the right to the foreign equivalent of Social Security is not. And the FBAR exceptions the IRS lists for retirement money cover U.S. plans (an IRA, or a plan under sections 401(a), 403(a) or 403(b)); Publication 5569 gives Canadian and Mexican retirement accounts as examples of reportable foreign accounts. We found no IRS page that treats a Portuguese retirement savings product (a PPR, for instance) specifically, so ask a U.S. tax professional how it is classified.

Accounts you keep in the United States, including IRAs and 401(k) plans, are not reported on Form 8938, and the FBAR is about accounts outside the United States. Our guide to opening a bank account in Portugal covers the Portuguese side of the account itself.

How do joint accounts and signing rights work?

For the FBAR, Publication 5569 says that if two persons jointly maintain a foreign account, each U.S. person has a financial interest and each must report the entire value of the account. A limited exception applies to spouses: the non-filing spouse does not need a separate FBAR if all the accounts that spouse must report are jointly owned with the filing spouse, the filing spouse reports them on a timely FBAR electronically signed with a PIN, and both spouses have completed and signed Form 114a. Otherwise each spouse files and reports the whole joint value. The IRS adds that income tax filing status, joint or separate, has no effect on this exception.

Signature authority counts on its own. Publication 5569 defines it as the authority to control the disposition of assets in a foreign account by direct communication to the bank, and its example is a person with power of attorney over elderly parents’ accounts: she must file an FBAR if the power of attorney gives her signature authority, and whether she ever used the authority is irrelevant to the filing requirement. It also lists financial interest cases, such as being owner of record, or owning more than 50 percent of an entity that holds an account.

For Form 8938, the instructions treat joint assets by status:

• Spouses filing a joint return include a jointly owned asset once, file one combined form and add together everything either spouse holds.
• Spouses who are both specified individuals and file separately each count half of a jointly owned asset to test the threshold, and the FATCA summary says to report the entire value if a form is required.
• With a joint owner who is not your spouse, each owner counts the whole value.

For a couple living in Portugal, the effect is easy to miss: a joint Portuguese account held with a spouse who is not a U.S. person still counts in full for the U.S. spouse’s FBAR.

What are the due dates and the extension?

The IRS FBAR page says you are allowed an automatic extension to October 15 if you miss April 15, and that the government may extend further after natural disasters. The pages we read give this FBAR rule without a separate rule for people living abroad. The 2-month automatic extension for U.S. taxpayers abroad that applies to the return itself is covered in the overview of US taxes from Portugal.

If you cannot gather everything by October 15, Publication 5569 says to file as complete an FBAR as possible and amend it when more information is available. FinCEN’s electronic filing requirements describe the amendment route: choose “Amendment” and give the prior report’s BSA identifier.

How do you convert euros and value the accounts?

Both forms are reported in U.S. dollars. Publication 5569 says to determine the maximum value in the account’s currency, then convert it using the Treasury rate of exchange for the last day of the calendar year, or another verifiable rate with its source if Treasury has none. The Form 8938 instructions likewise require the exchange rate on the last day of the tax year, in most cases the Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service rate, even if you closed the account before then. FinCEN’s electronic filing requirements say to round FBAR amounts up to the next whole dollar, and to enter zero if the value is negative.

For Form 8938 you can rely on periodic account statements for a financial account unless you have reason to know they do not reflect a reasonable estimate of the maximum value. The IRS says no third-party appraisal is needed for an asset outside an account.

How do you file the FBAR?

The IRS says you must file electronically through FinCEN’s BSA E-Filing System, and that paper filing needs an exemption requested from FinCEN’s Resource Center. FinCEN says individuals can file without registering, through the “no registration” option; attorneys, CPAs and enrolled agents count as institutions and must register.

FinCEN’s requirements document says that if you have no U.S. tax identification number, Item 4 asks for a passport or foreign tax number instead. For 25 or more accounts, the pages describe a modified form. Publication 5569 also says the tax return asks about foreign accounts (it names Form 1040, Schedule B) and that answering those questions is part of fulfilling the requirement; the FBAR itself is not attached to the return.

Form 8938, by contrast, is attached to the annual return: the IRS says not to send a Form 8938 to the IRS unless it is attached to an annual return or an amended return. If you left it out, the IRS FAQ says to file Form 1040-X with Form 8938 attached.

What are the penalties?

The IRS states them differently for each report.

Form 8938. The IRS says a taxpayer who must file and does not file a complete and correct form by the due date may face a 10,000 dollar penalty. If the form is still not filed within 90 days after the IRS mails a notice, the instructions add 10,000 dollars for each 30-day period, up to 50,000 dollars more. An understatement of tax linked to an undisclosed asset carries a 40 percent penalty. No penalty is imposed if the failure is due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect, which you must affirmatively show; the instructions add that a foreign jurisdiction’s penalty for disclosure is not reasonable cause. For spouses filing jointly, the penalties apply as if they were one person and liability is joint and several. The IRS also says the statute of limitations is extended to six years if you omit more than 5,000 dollars of income attributable to a specified foreign financial asset.

FBAR. The IRS says you may be subject to civil monetary penalties, criminal penalties or both, and that the maximums are adjusted annually for inflation. Publication 5569 separates non-willful violations, with no minimum and a maximum set in the penalty table at 31 CFR 1010.821, from willful violations, up to the greater of that table amount or 50 percent of the amount in the account at the time of the violation. It adds that civil penalties can exceed the balance of the account and that civil and criminal penalties can be imposed together. For criminal penalties it lists up to 250,000 dollars or 5 years for failing to file or keep records, rising to 500,000 dollars or 10 years if other laws are also violated. The penalty table on eCFR lists, under 31 U.S.C. 5321(a)(5), the provision Publication 5569 cites for FBAR penalties, 16,536 dollars (non-willful) and 165,353 dollars (willful) for penalties assessed on or after 17 January 2025; the IRS warns that amounts in older materials may not be current, so check the current table.

The IRS comparison also notes that separate penalties may apply for failing to file each form, since an individual may have to file both.

What if you are behind?

The IRS FBAR page says filing late or not at all is a violation, and that if the IRS has not contacted you and you are not under civil or criminal investigation you should file late FBARs as soon as possible to keep potential penalties to a minimum. The online form lets you enter the year and explain a late filing in up to 750 characters, per Publication 5569. For Form 8938, use Form 1040-X as above.

The IRS also describes streamlined filing compliance procedures for taxpayers who certify that their failure to report foreign assets and pay the tax due was non-willful, meaning negligence, inadvertence, mistake or a good faith misunderstanding of the law. Taxpayers under IRS civil examination, or under criminal investigation, are not eligible. A tax professional experienced with these procedures should decide whether they fit your situation; we do not assess that here.

How does FATCA affect Portuguese banks, and what will your bank ask?

The IRS FATCA summary says FATCA requires certain foreign financial institutions to report directly to the IRS information about financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers, or by foreign entities in which U.S. taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest, and that the institutions include banks, investment entities, brokers and certain insurance companies. It adds the consequence for you: “if you set up a new account with a foreign financial institution, it may ask you for information about your citizenship.”

Treasury’s table of FATCA agreements lists Portugal with an intergovernmental agreement in force (shown as 8-10-2016), of the type it labels Model 1, and treated as having an agreement in effect from 6-30-2014. The IRS FATCA overview says financial institutions and host country tax authorities can transmit and exchange FATCA data with the United States through its International Data Exchange Service. On the Portuguese side, the Autoridade Tributaria e Aduaneira has a page on its Financial Information Reporting Regime (RCIF) that lists the competent authority arrangement between the competent authorities of the United States and Portugal and the agreement between Portugal and the United States “to strengthen tax compliance and implement FATCA”. The page is a list of those documents. We did not find on it, or read anywhere else, what Portuguese banks ask clients, so we do not describe that.

What this means in practice, from the pages we read: the bank’s reporting does not replace your own. Your FBAR and Form 8938 duties follow from the tests above, whatever the bank reports. The tax number your bank asks for is covered in the NIF guide, and the order of tasks after arrival in the first-month paperwork guide.

Related guides on this site: the foreign earned income exclusion and foreign tax credit; U.S. filing deadlines and extensions from abroad; what the U.S.-Portugal tax treaty does.

More guides on this site: keeping your US or UK accounts while living in Portugal; sending money between Portugal and the US or UK; PFIC and Form 8621.

Pages read for this guide

We read these official pages on 18 October 2026: the IRS pages on the FBAR, the comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR requirements, Publication 5569 (FBAR Reference Guide), do I need to file Form 8938, basic questions and answers on Form 8938, the Form 8938 instructions, FATCA, the summary of FATCA reporting for U.S. taxpayers, FATCA information for individuals and the streamlined filing compliance procedures; FinCEN’s report of foreign bank and financial accounts page, its “How do I file the FBAR” page and its BSA electronic filing requirements for FinCEN Form 114; the U.S. Treasury table of FATCA agreements by jurisdiction; and 31 CFR 1010.821 on eCFR. the Portuguese tax authority’s page on the Financial Information Reporting Regime (RCIF). We could not read the BSA E-Filing screens or Banco de Portugal’s pages on this subject.