I personally try to avoid having to file FBAR because 1) the penalties for misfiling are massive–up to 50% of the value of your accounts, and 2) I don’t think it’s any of the government’s business what I do with money I’ve paid US taxes on overseas.
As for large purchases–I don’t think I’ve ever made a single purchase over US$10,000 anywhere, although if I did I’d probably put it on a US credit card or do a direct wire from a US account.
And do you attach that to your tax papers before sending them to the IRS?
I mail in paper tax returns each year (I’m old fashioned that way) but the FBAR can only be submitted electronically (as far as I’m aware).
I also mail in paper tax returns. So this is a wholly separate matter from your tax returns, I take it. But still IRS-related?
Wholly separate, not IRS related.
I don’t know how one could misfile unless doing it intentionally. It’s really simple and quick. The privacy concern is fair enough, but it’s a matter of how much work you’re willing to go through for that principle alone (assuming you don’t have anything to hide).
I have also never paid that much for anything at once, so I guess I’ve never thought about how I would do it, but your methods make sense.
For me I guess the biggest factor is that I want the freedom to be able to accumulate that much (either intentionally or accidentally) in my Taiwan account without having to worry about it.
FBar is Dept of Treasury nothing to do with IRS or Tax returns
I file Fbar electronically, it’s just way faster than mailing it.
One last question and sorry for being lazy about doing what is probably quick research. So for 2021, what is the deadline to electronically file the FBAR?
You should double check but I believe it is April 15 2022 for your 2021 Fbar year.
I think its more to track funding of illegal activities…like drug trafficking, funding terrorism, counterfeit money, human trafficking etc. But I guess Dept of Treasury uses the IRS to enforce it so prob they want to make sure ur not dodging taxes by hoarding money overseas
The 2-month tax filing extension for expats also applies to FBAR filing, so the expat deadline is June 15.
So it’s not “the” FBAR? Ha, ha. I guess it’s obvious I haven’t filed one yet. Probably sounded like “the Google.”
The Treasury Dept. calls it “the FBAR,” so you’re probably fine.
It’s just normal article usage before an acronym/abbreviation (I’ve always read it as an acronym, i.e., “ef-bar” rather than “ef-bee-a-ar”, but no idea whether that’s standard), where “FBAR” denotes (a bit awkwardly) “Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts”.
So it could be “the FBAR”, “an FBAR”, or just “FBAR” with no article depending on context, but both of the examples you gave seemed fine to me. It’s probably something that different native speakers deal with differently (and sometimes incorrectly) anyway, though.
Well, technically it’s “FinCEN Form 114.” But it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue though.
They missed the opportunity to call it FUBAR
Plenty of people call it that anyway. 
That would be far more applicable to IRS forms.