Two questions come up again and again from Americans in the UK who have just dealt with the FBAR for the first time. The first is "I made a mistake, how do I fix it?" The second is "I filed it, so now what?" Both have short and fairly reassuring answers, as long as the mistake was an honest one.
The short answer
To amend an FBAR you file a complete new FinCEN Form 114, tick the Amend box and quote the BSA Identifier of the original report. After any FBAR is filed, the only thing that happens is that FinCEN sends you an acknowledgement and an identifier. Nobody reviews it with you, nothing is assessed and no bill arrives. Keep the acknowledgement and your working papers for five years.
When an FBAR needs amending
The FBAR lists every non-US financial account you had a financial interest in or signature authority over during the year, together with the highest value each one reached. You need to correct the report if you:
- left an account out, for example a UK savings account, an ISA, a joint account with a non-US spouse, a company account you can sign on, or a pension you have decided to report
- reported the wrong year's balances, or a balance that is materially wrong rather than a few dollars out
- used the wrong exchange rate. FinCEN wants the US Treasury rate for the last day of the year, not the rate on the day the balance peaked
- entered the wrong account number, bank or address
- filed under the wrong name or taxpayer identification number
A balance that is a few dollars out does not need an amendment. FinCEN tells you to round up to the next whole dollar and accepts that maximum values are estimates taken from periodic statements.
How to file an amended FBAR
Find the original acknowledgement. When you filed, the BSA E-Filing System emailed you (or posted to its secure messaging area) a fourteen-digit BSA Identifier for the report. You need it for the amendment. If you cannot find it, FinCEN's instructions say to type fourteen zeros into the Prior Report BSA Identifier field instead.
Fill in a new Form 114 from scratch. An amended FBAR is not a correction slip. It replaces the original, so it has to list every reportable account for that year, including the ones that were right the first time.
Tick the Amend box in Item 1 and enter the Prior Report BSA Identifier.
Submit it through the BSA E-Filing System and keep the new acknowledgement. File one amended report for each year you are correcting. If three years were wrong, you file three amendments.
If a tax preparer files for you, they can submit the amendment on your behalf. The FBAR allows a third party to file with your written authorisation on FinCEN Form 114a, which you keep on file rather than send in.
What happens after you file
Less than most people expect. The BSA E-Filing System sends an immediate submission acknowledgement and then, usually within a few business days, a second message containing the BSA Identifier. That is the whole process. FinCEN does not go through the report with you, does not issue an assessment and does not send a letter saying the report has been accepted. The IRS, which enforces FBAR compliance on FinCEN's behalf, does not contact people about an ordinary report filed on time.
What you should do afterwards is simple. Keep the acknowledgement and the identifier with your tax papers, because you will need the identifier if you ever amend the report. Keep the records that support each entry (account names, numbers, bank details and the maximum values) for five years from the report's due date, which is the retention period in the FBAR regulations. Check Form 8938 as well, because it is a separate report filed with your Form 1040, with higher thresholds, and the two should agree with each other. And put next year in the diary: the FBAR is due on 15 April with an automatic extension to 15 October, with nothing to request.
When an amendment is not enough
An amendment is the right fix for an honest error on a report you filed on time. It is not the right tool if the account you missed also produced income that never appeared on your US return, or if you now realise that several years of FBARs were never filed at all. In those situations the choice of route matters. You might file the late FBARs with a documented reasonable cause, or you might need the IRS Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures if returns also need correcting. Since the IRS removed its published Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures page in early July 2026, that choice deserves more care than it used to. Our delinquent FBAR guide sets out the current position, and our FBAR filing service covers preparing and e-filing current, late and amended reports.
A word on penalties
FBAR penalties are civil penalties assessed by the IRS after an examination. Nothing is assessed automatically when a report is filed or amended. For penalties assessed from 17 January 2025, the inflation-adjusted maximum is $16,536 for each non-willful violation, counted per late report following the Supreme Court's decision in Bittner v United States in 2023, and far higher for willful violations. A prompt, voluntary correction of an honest mistake is the opposite of willful conduct, which is exactly why it is worth making.
Sources
- FinCEN, FBAR Line Item Filing Instructions: Item 1 (Amend), Prior Report BSA Identifier, reason for late filing, and currency conversion at the Treasury year-end rate
- FinCEN, BSA E-Filing System: acknowledgements and BSA Identifiers
- IRS, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR): due date, automatic extension, record keeping and penalties (page last reviewed 30 July 2026)
- 31 CFR 1010.350 and 1010.420 (reporting and record retention) and 31 CFR 1010.821 (penalty adjustment table)
This article is general information for US persons living in the UK, written on 18 October 2026. It is not advice on your own circumstances. FBAR penalty amounts are adjusted for inflation, so check the current table before relying on a figure.