FBAR Filing Requirement for Virtual Currency

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has announced that, currently, the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) regulations do not define a foreign account holding virtual currency as a type of reportable account. Accordingly, a foreign account holding virtual currency would not be reportable on the FBAR (unless it is a reportable account because it holds reportable assets besides virtual currency). However, FinCEN announced that it intends to propose to amend the regulations implementing the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regarding reports of foreign financial accounts (FBAR) to include virtual currency as a type of reportable account. Therefore, it is likely that very soon Virtual currency accounts will need to be reported on the FBAR, although currently there is no such requirement.