I’ve been getting so many questions lately related to the reporting of cryptos on anti-money laundering forms. There’s a lot out there about the anti-money laundering forms, but when it comes to reporting your cryptos on them… Well, that’s new territory for most traders and tax professionals.
I wrote the book Basics of Crypto Taxes, to address this exact topic. It comes from the years of experience I have in filing anti-money laundering forms and crypto taxes. Here’s a sneak peek into it so that you can better understand how cryptos are reported on anti-money laundering forms.
The following was extracted from the book “Basics of Crypto Taxes” by Clinton Donnelly. Some additional comments have been added.
What are the two anti-money laundering forms required of individuals?
International financial regulations require each country to take significant steps to prevent the laundering of the proceeds of crime and terrorism funding also called money laundering. A large part of the US anti-money laundering (AML) enforcement is the requiring of forms to be filed related to foreign transactions. These forms are used after-the-fact to scare people who have misreported or not reported when they should have.
For the individual, two forms must be filed to comply with AML regulations. The first form is called the Report of Foreign Bank Accounts and Financial Accounts. The second form is the Statement of Specified Foreign Assets.
What is the FBAR form?
The FBAR form is the short name for the Report of Foreign Bank Accounts and Financial Accounts. This form is also called FinCEN Form 114.
The FBAR form has been a requirement for individuals to complete since 2004. On this form, the taxpayer lists the maximum balances of his foreign financial accounts during the year. Foreign crypto exchanges are considered foreign financial accounts by FinCEN.
Does everyone have to file an FBAR form?
No. Filing this form is not required if the sum of the maximum balances of all foreign financial accounts added together is less than $10,000. If the sum of all balances is more than $10,000, then all foreign financial accounts regardless of the balance must be reported. Many people mistakenly think that they have to report only specific accounts with a balance of over $10,000. This is wrong. It is the sum that is compared to $10,000.
If you are required to filed an FBAR, then you must report all foreign accounts regardless of the account balance. This means if you had a foreign exchange account that you never formally closed, then you must report that account even if the maximum balance all year was zero.
What is the penalty for not filing the FBAR form on time?
If the IRS decides that you should have filed an FBAR when you hadn’t, then there is an immediate $10,000 assessed the moment the IRS issues you the notification letter. This penalty increase to $50,000 if you don’t file an FBAR within six months.
Once you give an FBAR to the IRS after receiving the notification letter, an additional penalty is assessed. This penalty depends on whether the IRS decides that you were willful in your negligence or not.
The non-willful penalty for not filing this form is $10,000 per account that should have been reported. For example, if you traded on five foreign exchanges and the sum of your maximum balances on these exchanges was $150,000, and you’d never filed the FBAR form, the penalty that could be assessed would be $50,000 or $10,000 times the number of accounts not reported.
The willful penalty is 50% of the account balance of each account. This penalty used to have a maximum of $100,000, but this limit has been removed.
Are you serious? A $10,000 penalty?
Dead serious. Congress has chosen to use a harsh penalty to motivate honest people to be diligent to complete this form. Several times this penalty has been challenged in the courts as a violation of the eighth amendment protection against “excessive fines imposed.” The Supreme Court has sided with the government because of the AML argument. The presumption is that the funds in the account are only the tip of the iceberg of the amount of dirty money that was being laundered.
When is the FBAR form due?
This form is filed at the same time as your individual income tax return or April 15. If you file for an extension on filing your income tax return, you automatically get an extension on your FBAR filing.
Filing the FBAR form after the deadline is an automatic $10,000 penalty. This is Congress’s way of getting your attention to comply with the regulations. Criminals and money launderers, of course, do not want to file these forms because it is incriminating to them. So, don’t behave like a criminal. File your FBAR on time.
How to file the FBAR form?
If you use a professional tax preparer, their tax software might enable them to file your FBAR form for you. However, self-filers are not as fortunate. TaxACT, TurboTax and all the other tax software packages have chosen to not offer electronic filing of the FBAR form for you. (There must be a fear of legal liability.)
As a result, the self-filer must use the government website to file his FBAR. It is easy to do. I recommend preparing an FBAR form 114 using the PDF form method rather than the online method. The form is uploaded onto this website https://bsaefiling1.fincen.treas.gov. By using the PDF version, you can re-use the PDF form in subsequent years by just updating the maximum balances. Considering it is a government website, it is reasonably easy to use.
Should you file an FBAR form if the due date has passed?
Yes, however, you need to claim tax amnesty on any late-filed FBAR form. Failure to do so will result in an automatic $10,000 penalty (footnote 1). To request this amnesty, when filing the FBAR there is an opportunity to select an explanation code for late filing. I recommend selecting option ”Z” other. A box will open to allow entering a custom explanation like, “I did not know I had to file. This form is submitted under the Delinquent FBAR procedure”.
What is Form 8938 - the other anti-money laundering form?
In 2010, Congress passed a sweeping law called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) which significantly increased the reporting requirements of Americans with foreign financial accounts including crypto exchanges. This law obliges taxpayers to report their foreign financial accounts and financial assets each year with their tax return. To be clear, this is an IRS form that is considered part of your tax return.
In addition to reporting your foreign accounts similar to the FBAR form, you must report all “all financial transactions and contracts for investment purposes where the counterparty is other than US person” (footnote 2). By this definition, the sum of all purchases and sales of all crypto assets during a tax year must be reported. Since the other party of an exchange is anonymous, you must assume they are not a US person, even using a US exchange. Depending upon the volume of trades you make, this number could be orders of magnitude higher than the value of your assets. This calculation of all purchases and sales would include even those on US exchanges (footnote 3).
The FATCA law and Form 8938 were written with very broad terms such that assets may be counted multiple times. The penalties for underreporting are so high, $10,000, that there is no incentive to underreport or under-characterize these foreign assets (footnote 4). Basically, the bigger a number you report, the safer you are.
Are there penalties for not reporting or reporting after the due date?
Yes. The penalty for not filing Form 8938 with your tax return is $10,000.
Consequently, if you need to fix past tax returns because you didn’t include an accurate Form 8938, you must do it under a tax amnesty program (footnote 5).
How to file Form 8938?
Form 8938 is filed with your 1040 tax return. If you e-file your tax return, then the 8938 gets e-filed with it.
See My Book: 10 Steps to a Great Crypto Tax Return
Does everyone have to file a Form 8938?
My answer is Yes and No.
Yes. Form 8938 is one of those rare times where it is safer to over-report than under-report. The bigger the amount reported, the safer you are. Some people get fixated about not filing if under the threshold. I believe not filing actually draws more attention to you by the IRS data mining computers, than if you file.
No. Form 8938 is not required if the sum of the balances of your foreign accounts plus the sum of the buy and sell transactions is under $50,000 if single or $100,000 if married (footnote 6). Minimum filing thresholds are increased if you live overseas (footnote 7). Because of the broad description of foreign assets under the FATCA law, it is easy for a trader with no more than $10,000 invested in the crypto marketplace to exceed the minimum filing thresholds by doing frequent trades. There is nothing to gain by not reporting.
That being said, I recommend that all crypto traders file both forms regardless of the minimum filing thresholds. Why? The IRS is using data mining computers to catch crypto traders not reporting correctly. Data mining looks for logical relationships and flags taxpayers when the relationships are missing. So given that they know you traded on foreign exchanges, you should have filed an FBAR and a Form 8938. They can’t tell if you are excepted by being under the filing threshold. By filing, you satisfy the logical condition and avoid putting yourself on the list of taxpayers to be examined.
Footnotes:
1) For FBAR self-filers, see our Crypto Tax Fixer Package, which includes my book Tax Amnesty Made Easy (not sold separately).
2) 26 USC 6038D(c)(2)(B)
3) Even if you do crypto to crypto trades on the US exchange like Coinbase Pro, the other party to your trade is not the exchange, but the other person they have found to take your trade. Since you can not assume that an anonymous person is an American, you must assume that the other persons to all your exchanges are foreigners.
4) GAO ‘Foreign Asset Reporting: Actions Needed to Enhance Compliance Efforts, Eliminate Overlapping Requirements, and Mitigate Burdens on U.S. Persons Abroad’ <2019> GAO-19-180 https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-19-180, p17.
5) When you file for tax amnesty, you have one chance to do it right. I recommend using a professional to prepare your amnesty paperwork. The stakes are very high not to consider this. Still, if that is not an option, tax amnesty self-filers can use our do-it-yourself Crypto Tax Fixer Package, which includes my book Tax Amnesty Made Easy (not sold separately).
6) There are actually several tests for determining the minimum filing threshold on Form 8938, which makes it confusing to determine. The numbers listed here are the most conservative threshold levels.
7) See the instructions for Form 8938 about a complete description of the minimum threshold amounts.
Get Our Newsletter
Get my bi-weekly newsletter with helpful tax resources and keep us at hand in case you ever need our help.
You’ll also receive a special discount code for signing up!
4 thoughts on “How are Cryptos Reported on Anti-Money Laundering Forms?”