1. I am a US citizen residing and working in the UK since mid 2016. I didn’t even know what an FBAR was until 2019 and so filed delinquent FBARs for 2017-2019. Other things consumed my life last year and I again forgot to file an FBAR for 2020. Should I file a delinquent one? At one point, my checking account did have >$10,000 because I had my house deposit saved. Am I going to penalized for filing late? I haven’t been penalized for the previous late filed FBARs and just chose the ‘I didn’t know I had to file’ for my reason, but I am afraid of incurring penalties now because I did know, but forgot this time! As for FATCA, isn’t this something I am supposed to receive from the bank, or do I have to go and file that myself? I received one from my bank once but don’t recall receiving it annually.
2. I have most of my accumulated wealth in US based mutual funds and stocks, one traditional IRA, and one SIMPLE IRA, all of which I had before moving to the UK. I also still have a US checking account with a large bank. Thus far, I have basically just kept all the money where it is and reported any investment income or money withdrawn when I file my US taxes. I use a family members’ address for all these accounts. I was under the impression I could still keep all these accounts using a family members’ address but that it is ‘questionable’ to make further contributions to them while I live abroad. For clarity, I am not withdrawing from any retirement accounts yet. Can I transfer money using services like TransferWise to my US bank account and contribute money to the traditional IRA or mutual funds I have in the US if I want to, or is this not legal in some way? Should I be reporting these accounts to the UK? (I wouldn’t even know how)
3. I have a UK employer sponsored pension plan since 2018 (I think?). From what I can tell, the contributions to this are not treated as income for the FEIE and it is not treated as a PFIC. Do I need to report this pension/retirement account on the FBAR? I don’t think I did on the previous FBARs – so if I am supposed to be reporting this, do I then need to go back and amend the previous years?
4. My spouse is a UK citizen, that has thus far remained completely outside the US tax system. We may decide to move back to the US in the future and I have read I need to demonstrate 5 years’ tax compliance for him to get a green card. I have filed every year using turbo tax to the best of my ability, though I’m sure I have made mistakes because of ignorance in addition to probably not filing FBARs correctly. Is this something that is likely to affect my spouse’s ability to get a green card if we move back to the US?
If you read this far, thank you!! This forum has been really valuable for me – with help from here I recently had my indefinite leave to remain approved in the UK! Now I have that out of the way I am trying to sort out my finances….