8938 and $200,000 amount for joint accounts / joint fiing

ChromiumDioxide · Post by **ChromiumDioxide** » Tue Apr 08, 2014 7:43 pm

Hello

I filed a joint 1040 with my wife last year and have recently discovered about 8891/3520/8938/FBAR etc. requirements, non of which I filed last year and so I'm now in the process of slowly educating myself about each of these in order to hopefully rectify 2012's filing without penalty and knowing what to do for the 2013 return.

Firstly am I correct in thinking that an 8938 only needs to be filed if the total amounts of all relevant accounts is > $200,000?

If so then can I confirm or otherwise that that amount is per person?

For the sake of illustration, lets suppose my wife and I have $50,000 each in a TFSA and $50,000 each in an RRSP, and $180,000 in a joint bank account.

Does that count as $50,000 + $50,000 + $90,000 per person and thus it was not necessary to file an 8938?

ChromiumDioxide · Post by **ChromiumDioxide** » Tue Apr 08, 2014 7:47 pm

P.S.
It should be implicitly obvious but to be explicit: we are Canadian citizens resident in the US and these amounts are for CDN accounts.

ChromiumDioxide · Post by **ChromiumDioxide** » Tue Apr 08, 2014 8:10 pm

Oh, so i just read that the $200,000 figure is for people residing outside of the us. Whats the figure if within the us?

rohitkn@gmail.com · Post by **rohitkn@gmail.com** » Tue Apr 08, 2014 8:54 pm

Hi Chromium,

Please see the instructions section (separate document on the IRS website) for any form.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8938.pdf

"If you are married and you and your spouse file a joint income tax return, you satisfy the reporting threshold only if the total value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than $100,000 on the last day of the tax
year or more than $150,000 at any time during the tax year."