Questions regarding FABR

[toronto2000]

Sorry if this has been discussed before but I wanted to get a better understanding of FABR.
I am a Canadian citizen currently on H1B. My understanding is that if I have more than $10,000 in my account in Canada, I need to fill out FABR.
Does that mean that I have to pay taxes on that money or is it only for reporting and information purposes?

Another question: My mother is planning to upgrade her house in Canada and she is a Canadian citizen. She is planning to sell her current house which she owns and wanted to put all the money as a down payment towards her new house. The new house's mortgage is bigger and she needs a cosigner so I plan to help her financially as I am currently living in United States and currently live and work here. The problem is that the new house which will be jointly bought by me and her, will need down payment which needs to come from a joint account held by me and my mother as per my realtor and mortgage broker. My mother plans to sell her current house, put all money which will be given to her and not me, put that into our joint account and then use that account to make the down payment for the new house. My questions is: given that I will be joint with her on that account but the funds were originally given to her from the old house, do I have to file FABR for that even if the money will be in the account for few weeks.

[nelsona]

You need to report all accounts outside US that you have any signing authority, that would include your RRSP, TFSA, any bank account YOU own, as well as this new joint account with your mother.