Do Hurricane Harvey Victims Have Additional Time to File FBARs (Form 114)?

I recently explored in a separate Blog post, here, whether partners that live outside the disaster area qualify for additional time to make tax payments and file returns if the partnerships are located inside the disaster area. A similarly burning question is whether hurricane victims have additional time to file FBARs (Form 114), the filing obligation for which arises under Title 31 rather than Title 26 of the United States Code and which have an extended due date of October 15, 2017. The proverbial jury was out on this issue until today, when FinCEN delivered a verdict.

FinCEN announced today that Hurricane Harvey victims in affected areas of Texas have until January 31, 2018, to file their Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) report for the 2016 calendar year. FinCEN is offering this relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as qualifying for individual assistance. In addition, FinCEN announced that it will work with any FBAR filer who lives outside the disaster area but whose records required to meet the deadline are located in the affected area regardless of where the filer resides. These persons should contact FinCEN Resource Center at 800-767-2825 or frc@fincen.gov.  A copy of FinCEN’s announcement is linked here.

If you have any questions on this topic or any other tax-related topic, please do not hesitate to contact me at (214) 749-2464 or adaddino@meadowscollier.com.