Marriage loosens FATCA but makes FBAR more dangerous: the two move in opposite directions

This is the item Taiwanese people in America most often overlook, and the one with the heaviest penalties. And the thing most easily misunderstood is that marriage affects the two regimes in exactly opposite directions.

Two regimes, not one thing

FBAR (FinCEN Form 114)

• Threshold: foreign accounts totalling more than $10,000 at any point during the year. The IRS wording: "the aggregate value of those foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year reported"
• Not filed with the IRS: submitted through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing system, and not mailed with your tax return
• Deadline: April 15 of the following year, with an automatic extension to October 15 (no request needed)
• The threshold doesn't vary with marital status

FATCA (Form 8938)

• Filed together with your tax return
• The joint-filing threshold is double the single one

Where the directions diverge

Hearing "you have to be more careful about foreign asset reporting after marrying," most people think of the 8938. In reality:

• The 8938 gets looser when you file jointly, the threshold doubles, so you're actually less likely to trip it.
• FBAR ignores marital status entirely, $10,000 is $10,000; it doesn't become $20,000 just because you got married.

And once you file jointly, your spouse's accounts count too.

So the real trap looks like this: you each have an account in Taiwan, neither reaches ten thousand dollars on its own, and you both assume there's nothing to report. Add them together and you're over.

What counts as a "foreign account"

Broader than most people assume:

• Taiwanese bank accounts (including the dormant one)
• Insurance policies (those with cash value)
• Securities accounts and shares
• Accounts your parents opened for you, as long as you have signature authority or control.

That last one is the most commonly missed. Many people have a Taiwanese account their parents opened in childhood which they don't even use, but for reporting purposes it counts.

The cost of a non-US spouse electing to file jointly

If your spouse isn't American but elects to file jointly to save tax, they are voluntarily treated as a US tax resident(his)worldwide income must be reported to the US, and their foreign accounts come along with it.

If they still have income, investments or inherited assets in Taiwan, that choice matters far more than the tax saved this year. Think it through before filing, not after.

Penalties

Civil penalties for failure to report can reach a substantial share of the account balance, and willful concealment is criminal. This is not a "just file it late" level of problem.

What to do

1. If you had Taiwanese accounts before marrying, consult a cross-border tax accountant before filing jointly. That fee is vastly cheaper than the penalties afterwards
2. List every foreign account both of you hold and add them up to see whether they exceed $10,000
3. Pay special attention to the phrase "at any time during the year." Even if you only have a thousand dollars left at year end, exceeding the threshold on any single day that year means you have to report.

Official sources

• FBAR (IRS)
• FATCA / Form 8938 (IRS)

In one line

Getting married loosens the threshold for 8938, but it is actually riskier for FBAR, because FBAR ignores your marital status while still counting your spouse's accounts.

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