FBAR for Americans living in Germany

German banking spreads a person across accounts by design: a Girokonto for daily life, a Tagesgeldkonto for savings, a Depot for investments, often a Bausparvertrag, sometimes a second bank because the first one's card was inconvenient. Each is a foreign financial account for U.S. purposes, and the FBAR adds them all together.

The test

File FinCEN Form 114 for any year in which the combined maximum value of all your non-U.S. financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any point. It is an aggregate, and it is the peak rather than the 31 December balance. Signature authority counts even where you own nothing.

Which German accounts typically count

• Girokonto at Sparkasse, Volksbank, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, ING, DKB, comdirect or N26
• Tagesgeld and Festgeld savings accounts
• A Depot at Trade Republic, Scalable Capital, Consorsbank, flatex, comdirect or a Sparkasse
• Bausparvertrag with a Bausparkasse, where it holds a credit balance
• Kapitallebensversicherung or a Rürup/Riester contract with an account-like value, depending on the arrangement
• Accounts with Vollmacht or signature authority — an employer's, a Verein's, a relative's

What Germany does not do for you

German banks apply Abgeltungsteuer at source, and a Freistellungsauftrag exempts investment income up to the Sparerpauschbetrag from that withholding. Both are German mechanisms, settled inside the German system. Neither creates, satisfies, or affects a U.S. reporting obligation. Nor does filing a Steuererklärung with your Finanzamt, or receiving a Steuerbescheid.

FBAR versus Form 8938

Germany and the United States exchange account information under a FATCA intergovernmental agreement, which is why a German bank may have asked you to confirm U.S. status or sign a W-9. The information moves whether or not you file.

Converting euro

Use the Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange for December 31 of the year reported, applied to each account's maximum euro balance during that year. Income on the Form 1040 uses the IRS yearly-average rate instead — the two are not interchangeable.

What to gather

• Bank name and address, plus IBAN
• Maximum euro value during the year — the Jahressteuerbescheinigung and Kontoauszüge together usually give it
• Ownership: sole, joint, or Vollmacht only
• The December 31 Treasury EUR rate for the year

How do I file the FBAR online from Germany?

The FBAR is filed online only, through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System — not with the Form 1040, not with the Finanzamt, and not on paper. An individual files the FinCEN Form 114 directly on the BSA E-Filing site without creating an account; a preparer files through an institutional account. You need each account's institution, address, account number, its maximum value during the year in US dollars (the Treasury December 31 rate for that year), and whether it is yours, joint, or held with Vollmacht only.

It is due April 15, with an automatic extension to October 15 — the extension is automatic, nothing is requested. The report for one calendar year is due the following year, so an FBAR "for 2024" covers the 2024 peak balances and was due in 2025; if it has not been filed, it is late, and the next section is the one that applies.

Is there an FBAR amnesty?

There is no IRS or FinCEN programme called an amnesty, and the one programme that resembled one — the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program — closed in September 2018. What exists instead are two published routes, and which one applies depends on a single fact: was the income from the accounts reported on your US returns?

• Returns filed, income reported, only the FBARs missed → file the late FBARs electronically with FinCEN, the reason selected on the form and a reasonable-cause statement kept with your records. The IRS withdrew its published Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures — and the printed assurance that no penalty would be imposed where the income was reported — on July 1, 2026. The law did not change: the penalty is discretionary, and IRM 4.26.16 still tells examiners not to assert one where the failure was non-willful, due to reasonable cause, and the account is properly reported on the late FBAR.
• Returns missing or the account income unreported → the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures: three returns, six FBARs and a non-willfulness certification on Form 14653, with the offshore penalty waived for a taxpayer meeting the non-residency test.

FBAR auf Deutsch: was ist das?

Der FBAR („Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts", FinCEN Form 114) ist eine jährliche Meldung an das US-Finanzministerium (FinCEN) — keine Steuererklärung und keine Steuer. US-Staatsbürger und Green-Card-Inhaber in Deutschland müssen ihn abgeben, wenn der Höchststand aller Nicht-US-Konten zusammen — Girokonto, Tagesgeld, Depot, Bausparvertrag — im Kalenderjahr $10,000 überstieg. Er wird ausschließlich online über das BSA-E-Filing-System eingereicht, unabhängig von der deutschen Steuererklärung; der Freistellungsauftrag und die Abgeltungsteuer haben darauf keinen Einfluss. Versäumte Jahre lassen sich über die veröffentlichten IRS-Verfahren nachholen — auf Englisch erklärt in den Abschnitten oben.