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Foreign pension: what do I report to the IRS?
A band only. Nothing you enter here leaves your browser unless you ask for the result by email.
How this screen works
This tool deliberately produces a scope rather than a verdict. That is not caution for its own sake — it is the honest shape of the answer. Foreign pensions have no general US rule. The treatment turns on four things at once:
- The plan's legal form under local law — the fact everything else hangs on.
- What it holds. Pooled non-US funds inside the plan raise the PFIC question.
- Whether a treaty article covers it, and whether claiming it needs Form 8833.
- Value, which decides the Form 8938 thresholds — aggregated with your other foreign assets.
Each answer below is labelled likely, possible or unlikely because that is the resolution the inputs support. A tool that turned these facts into a confident yes or no would be inventing certainty it does not have, and a foreign pension is exactly the area where a confident wrong answer is expensive.
Limitations
- No treaty text is applied. Country selection provides context, not a treaty analysis.
- Form 8938 is screened from a value band, not from your actual aggregate of specified foreign financial assets.
- Nothing here addresses the local-country tax treatment of the plan.
- Prior-year positions and any existing basis in the plan are outside this screen.
Sources
- 31 CFR §1010.350 and the FinCEN 114 instructions — foreign financial accounts.
- IRC §6038D and the Form 8938 instructions — specified foreign financial assets.
- IRC §1297 and the Form 8621 instructions — passive foreign investment companies.
- IRC §6048 and Rev. Proc. 2020-17 — foreign trust reporting and the tax-favoured plan exemption.
Common questions
Is my foreign pension taxable in the US?
There is no single answer, and anyone who gives you one without seeing the plan documents is guessing. US treatment depends on the plan's legal form under local law, whether an income tax treaty defers taxation of contributions and growth, and what the plan holds. Some plans are effectively deferred like a US retirement account; others produce US tax on growth you cannot access.
Do I report a foreign pension on the FBAR?
Generally yes if the plan holds an individual account balance at a foreign financial institution and your foreign accounts combined exceeded $10,000 at any point in the year. A pure defined-benefit promise with no account in your name is more likely to fall outside FBAR — but many plans described as defined benefit do carry a member account, so check rather than assume.
Can a foreign pension contain PFICs?
Yes, and it is the most expensive thing on the list. Non-US funds are generally PFICs for a US person, and holding them inside a foreign retirement plan does not by itself take them out of scope. Whether a treaty article or the plan's status as a qualifying scheme protects them is a specific question about your specific plan, not a general rule.
Does Form 3520 apply to my foreign retirement account?
It can. Some personal, non-employer retirement arrangements are treated as foreign trusts, which brings Forms 3520 and 3520-A and substantial penalties for missing them. Relief is available for certain tax-favoured retirement plans, but it has conditions that have to be met rather than assumed.
What about Form 8938?
An interest in a foreign pension is a specified foreign financial asset and counts toward the Form 8938 thresholds. Those thresholds are considerably higher for taxpayers living abroad than for US residents, and they aggregate with all your other specified foreign financial assets — so a pension below the threshold on its own can still put you over it.
Country-specific guides
UK SIPP
Self-invested personal pensions and the US treaty.
Swiss pillar 2
Vested benefits, FBAR and Form 8938.
German pension
Statutory and occupational schemes.
Canadian RRSP
Treaty deferral and the reporting that remains.
Australian super
The plan type US rules handle worst.
Danish pension
Ratepension, kapitalpension and US filings.
How Atamatax calculations are produced — the tests applied, statutory sources and review cadence — is documented in the methodology, and what is and is not reviewed in accuracy & review. Calculation fixes are recorded in the changelog.
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