IRS Offers Another FBAR Filing Extension

The Internal Revenue provided an additional extension Thursday on the requirements for filing a form disclosing a foreign bank account until Nov. 1, 2011, for those who had signature authority over, but no financial interest in, the account in 2009 or earlier calendar years.

The previous deadline had been June 30. In Notice 2011-54, the IRS provided additional administrative relief to persons required to file Form TD F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, also known as an FBAR, to report signature authority over foreign financial accounts held during calendar year 2009 or earlier calendar years, which was properly deferred under earlier Notice 2009-62, 2009-35 I.R.B. 260, or Notice 2010-23, 2010-11 I.R.B. 441.

Late last month, the IRS and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, extended the FBAR filing deadline for some individuals to June 30, 2012, but mainly for financial professionals (see IRS Extends FBAR Deadline for Some Finance Pros). The new notice allows that later date to remain in effect for those who fit the earlier criteria: an employee or officer of a covered entity who has signature or other authority over and no financial interest in a foreign financial account of another entity more than 50 percent owned, directly or indirectly, by the entity (a “controlled person”); or an employee or officer of a controlled person of a covered entity who has signature or other authority over and no financial interest in a foreign financial account of the entity or another controlled person of the entity.

In the new notice, the IRS said that it and FinCEN had recently been informed that individuals with signature authority over, but no financial interest in, foreign financial accounts were having difficulty compiling the information needed to file complete and accurate FBARs with respect to the 2009 or earlier calendar years by the June 30, 2011 deadline. Accordingly, the IRS and FinCEN decided to provide the following additional administrative relief: Persons having signature authority over, but no financial interest in, a foreign financial account in 2009 or earlier calendar years for which the reporting deadline was extended by Notice 2009-62 or Notice 2010-23 will now have until November 1, 2011, to file FBARs with respect to those accounts. The deadline for reporting signature authority over, or a financial interest in, foreign financial accounts for the 2010 calendar year remains June 30, 2011.

The administrative relief provided in the new notice does not limit the relief provided in FinCEN’s Notice 2011-1, which was released on May 31, 2011, and revised on June 6, 2011. A copy of revised FinCEN Notice 2011-1 can be found at www.fincen.gov.

In addition, the administrative relief provided in the new notice does not affect the requirements to provide information or file FBARs in connection with the IRS’s 2009 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program or the 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative. Nor does the notice alter the deadlines for electing to participate in, or fulfilling the submission requirements of, the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program or the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative.