Now let's turn our attention to some other tax issues that involve additional filing requirements. This includes the acronyms, f bar and fatca, which if you're not familiar with already, he will be in a moment, as well as a program that's available that can help you catch up on back taxes if you fallen behind. So let's go ahead and figure out what you need to know to get and stay compliant. So many expats and digital nomads may have additional filing requirements related to non US bank accounts. And there are broadly two types of filing requirements that may possibly apply. The first one is perhaps more well known.

It's often referred to by the acronym f bar, standing for foreign bank account reporting and this is a reporting requirement that is required if the aggregate value of all of your Non Us Bank and financial accounts exceeds 10,000 US dollars at any point in the tax year. This has been in place for quite some time. And it's required every year if your accounts exceed that aggregate threshold, which is at a relatively modest level, and it doesn't change for inflation. So, of course, many, many people are subject to this requirement. It doesn't require you to pay any additional tax. It's just an informational reporting.

However, significant penalties for non compliance can apply. So I certainly urge anyone who has a requirement to just go ahead and file the filing deadline is now harmonized with your regular income tax reporting. So whenever your extended deadline is for your regular 1040 your F bar is due on that date as well. And it's filed online with the Treasury Department. So your tax preparer can electronically file it on your behalf or you can file it yourself. And it just requires reporting the maximum balance each of your non us accounts reached, as well as some other information about the account, account number and where it's held, etc.

Separately from the F bar, there is also a requirement under fatca, which is foreign account Tax Compliance act, and that was put in place somewhat more recently than the F bar. I believe it was 2013 or so. And this is actually a file a form that's filed along with your income tax return. So it's form 8938. And if you meet these separate filing requirements, you have to file the fatca form 8938 as well as the regular s bar. So just to give you an idea of what the 8938 filing thresholds are, if they're going to apply to you, they're significantly higher than the F bar threshold.

So we just see that many fewer people needing to follow the 8938. But in general, it's a lot of the same information as on the F bar. Anyways, the thresholds just differ depending on whether you're living inside or outside the US and whether you're single or married filing jointly. So you can just see the relative thresholds there. And generally speaking, they're quite a lot higher if you're living outside the US. So if you're a digital nomad or an expat, you can be looking at those thresholds.

Your tax preparer will let you know if she needs additional information to prepare the 8938 for you. Now what about for those expats are digital nomads who are a little bit behind on their filing requirements and are looking to catch up now. Fortunately for you, as of 2018, when this course is published, there is a program in place that may be of use to you. And if you think you need to avail this program, please discuss it on our consultation. But generally speaking, there is a program called the streamlined filing procedures. And if you fallen behind on past tax returns, this may be the program that would help you catch up.

So you under this program, regardless of how many years you've fallen behind, what you need to do is file three years of back tax returns, and six years of back f bars if you have any. And the key factor here is that your non compliance was non willful. In other words, you didn't file because you didn't know you had a requirement. You weren't specifically trying to evade US tax. And the good thing about this program is it allows you to catch up on your back taxes with penalties waived. So this is a really advantageous program, you can get caught up all in one go.

And then obviously, if you do owe any taxes, you pay that back plus interest, but and then going forward, you would need to file of course every year on time. So this is certainly something to discuss in our call, I prepare us returns under the streamlined filing procedures on a fairly regular basis. So just know you're not alone in this. And there is sort of a path forward to bring you back into compliance. So just a sort of reassurance there that even though the issues can be very complex, once you know what the options are, and once you have a good tax professional working on your behalf, it becomes a lot more easy to figure out what your steps are and figure How to get back on track.