FBAR, FinCEN 114, 114a, a new developement for filing

This topic was posted on another expat forum yesterday. It may be of interest to users of this forum.

It appears registration is no longer required when electronically filing an FBAR. You can now simply download the PDF form, and once completed, submit it.

http://bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov/NoRegFBARFiler.html

There has been the addition of one line on the Treasury site page:
"* There is no need to register or login to the system in order to file the Individual FBAR."

The instructions on the page seem straightforward; download, complete, and file (with a bit of personal info).

I have no idea of the ramifications of this, particularly for 114a. It appears you still receive a confirmation Email.

I would be interested in Guya's thoughts on this.

It appears registration is no longer required when electronically filing an FBAR. You can now simply download the PDF form, and once completed, submit it.
The instructions on the page seem straightforward; download, complete, and file

.....Except for those of (the 100000's of) us around the globe on a Mac.
Not only can we not file electronically.....the PDF form itself will not even download and open.
I have confirmed this with an Apple senior advisor - to whom I gave access to my screen while on the phone with him.  Furthermore - he even tried downloading the FBar FinCEN form 114 to his own computer at Apple - but received the same error message.  Here it is:
Please wait...
If this message is not eventually replaced by the proper contents of the document, your PDF viewer may not be able to display this type of document.
You can upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Reader for Windows®, Mac, or Linux® by visiting http://www.adobe.com/go/reader_download. [nofollow]
For more assistance with Adobe Reader visit http://www.adobe.com/go/acrreader. [nofollow]

fwiw: We both have the most current versions of Adobe Reader installed and we tried to download the form using both Safari and Firefox.
I had no trouble downloading and opening the 19 pages of PDF Instructions however.

Catch 22, right?  
Oh well, the US Treasury still has 5 months to get their act together before the June deadline.

This topic was posted on another expat forum yesterday. It may be of interest to users of this forum.

It appears registration is no longer required when electronically filing an FBAR. You can now simply download the PDF form, and once completed, submit it.

http://bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov/NoRegFBARFiler.html

There has been the addition of one line on the Treasury site page:
"* There is no need to register or login to the system in order to file the Individual FBAR."

The instructions on the page seem straightforward; download, complete, and file (with a bit of personal info).

I have no idea of the ramifications of this, particularly for 114a. It appears you still receive a confirmation Email.

I would be interested in Guya's thoughts on this.

I completed my FBAR (on a PC) with no problems. The PDF downloaded and it was easy to work with. When it came to submitting, it connected direct to the Treasury website and uploaded. It then produced an on screen printable receipt. It also sent a receipt to my inbox.

It looks like the 114a is needed for joint filing; there was nothing to suggest otherwise.

.....Except for those of (the 100000's of) us around the globe on a Mac.
Not only can we not file electronically.....the PDF form itself will not even download and open.
I have confirmed this with an Apple senior advisor - to whom I gave access to my screen while on the phone with him.  Furthermore - he even tried downloading the FBar FinCEN form 114 to his own computer at Apple - but received the same error message.  Here it is:
Please wait...
If this message is not eventually replaced by the proper contents of the document, your PDF viewer may not be able to display this type of document.
You can upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Reader for Windows®, Mac, or Linux® by visiting http://www.adobe.com/go/reader_download.
For more assistance with Adobe Reader visit http://www.adobe.com/go/acrreader.

fwiw: We both have the most current versions of Adobe Reader installed and we tried to download the form using both Safari and Firefox.
I had no trouble downloading and opening the 19 pages of PDF Instructions however.

Catch 22, right?  
Oh well, the US Treasury still has 5 months to get their act together before the June deadline.

CaLaCa, what's your Mac OS and Adobe Reader version?

I'm using Mac OS 10.6.8 and AR 11.0.06 and have managed to download the form successfully. I'm currently in the process of filling it and haven't had any issues with saving the data. Just wondering if the Mac version makes a difference...

CaLaCa, what's your Mac OS and Adobe Reader version?
I'm using Mac OS 10.6.8 and AR 11.0.06 and have managed to download the form successfully. I'm currently in the process of filling it and haven't had any issues with saving the data. Just wondering if the Mac version makes a difference...

Thanks for your reply Charmaine.....
I'm actually using same version of Adobe Reader....but Mavericks (OS 10.9.1) on my Mac - which goes to show......newer "ain't" necessarily better, right  
Still.....I did finally trick the PDF into downloading and opening.
Now it's safely saved and all is well.

Filed my FBAR today with no problems using a Windows based PC.  Only comment I have is that in fields 21 and 22 to enter State and Foreign postal code, you cannot enter anything into the State field, so it seems pointless to have it there, and the postal code includes a space which this field does not allow. (However, I had no problem in entering the postal code after removing the spaces).

The online instructions were clear enough.

Filed my FBAR today with no problems using a Windows based PC.  Only comment I have is that in fields 21 and 22 to enter State and Foreign postal code, you cannot enter anything into the State field, so it seems pointless to have it there, and the postal code includes a space which this field does not allow. (However, I had no problem in entering the postal code after removing the spaces).

The online instructions were clear enough.

According to the instructions the State field is relevant to some countries (They mention Canada and Mexico). The instructions also make it clear that postcodes should be joined with no space.

I guess they had some issues about designing a form which could be used in any country.

According to the instructions the State field is relevant to some countries (They mention Canada and Mexico). The instructions also make it clear that postcodes should be joined with no space.

I guess they had some issues about designing a form which could be used in any country.

The country field is 2 fields after the State field, but I just checked and if you fill in the country field as Canada then you can go back and choose a Canadian State.  Guess I should learn to read the instructions more closely.

Thanks.