Foreign bank account holders face deadline - Houston Business Journal:

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The Department of the Treasury quietly unveilede the stipulationin March, but with a June 30 deadlined approaching, tax professionals around the country are being swampeed with last-minute questions about the ruling. The rulingb applies to any U.S. citizen, green-carcd holder, U.S. corporation, partnership or trust that has controlk over any foreign bank mutual fund or any securities account with a balanceof $10,00o0 or higher. The form, known as Reportg of Foreign Bank andFinancialk Accounts, or FBAR, must be completee annually. The minimum penalty for “non-willful failure” to file an FBAR is set at with a penaltyof $100,000 for deliberatelyt avoiding to file.
Mary Thomas, directoer of international services withWeaver & Tidwell in Dallas, said Wednesday that she has been inundated with last-minute phone calls from clients and otherd members of the public. “We’re advising clients to get it in to Treasuryu byJune 30. When in doubt, It’s better to be safe than sorry,” Thomass said, noting that the deadline cannot be Thomassaid it’s most likely that Treasury was reacting to the controversgy over the high-profile case beingh pursued by the Justice Department in a probse of Swiss financial services gian UBS AG over tax evasion by U.S. clienta with Swiss accounts.
Taxpayers who have properlyh reported taxable income earned from such foreign sourcez and listed those accounts on required IRS forms can file priorr year FBARswithout penalty. Taxpayers who reported and paid tax for 2008 on foreigmn account income but will not have sufficient time to completer the FBAR by June 30 can fileby Sept. 23 but must includ e sufficient reasons why the FBAR is filed late and includee a copy of their 2008tax return. The form must be filled out and mailed to the Treasuryg Department and cannot be completed in anelectronicv version. To access a PDF copy of the form, .