US spouse moved to UK - joint account

Hi all

Does anyone have any experience on whether it’s easier to NOT have a joint account to keep tax things more sensible?

My understanding is providing no account >$10,000 then no need for the disclosure to the US, and that providing the US spouse doesn’t earn over 80,000 they just file a tax return and unlikely have anything to pay?

Anything else to be aware of?

It's definitely easier to not have a joint account.  My husband and I keep our finances separate.  I file my US tax return as married filing separately, and I only report my own accounts/details on FBAR each year.

As for filing FBAR, it's not just a single account balance.  You trigger FBAR if the total of all of the foreign accounts that you have signatory authority on exceeds $10,000 at any point in the calendar year.  So if you have a small joint account for paying your monthly bills in, and at the start of each month it has a high balance of £2000, and then you also have a savings and current account in just your name that reaches £5000 and £1100, respectively, in early December, that's a total of £8100 in foreign accounts, which is just over $10,000 at today's exchange rate, and you could have to file FBAR.

It's definitely easier to not have a joint account.  My husband and I keep our finances separate.  I file my US tax return as married filing separately, and I only report my own accounts/details on FBAR each year.

As for filing FBAR, it's not just a single account balance.  You trigger FBAR if the total of all of the foreign accounts that you have signatory authority on exceeds $10,000 at any point in the calendar year.  So if you have a small joint account for paying your monthly bills in, and at the start of each month it has a high balance of £2000, and then you also have a savings and current account in just your name that reaches £5000 and £1100, respectively, in early December, that's a total of £8100 in foreign accounts, which is just over $10,000 at today's exchange rate, and you could have to file FBAR.

Thanks

I have a joint account and don't find it any problem at all in filing taxes or the FBAR - it adds on about a minute of looking for the highest amount in the year and adding it to the form.

As far as I can understand from the IRS doc (linked below), if the sum total of all your accounts' max values (including your UK pension if you have one!) reaches $10k, you do have to file an FBAR.

Just as an FYI, at the time of writing, the GBP amount of $10k is just over £8k, but when filing you are obliged to use the Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange for the last day of the calendar year.

Here's some easy to understand info: https://www.greenbacktaxservices.com/blog/fbar-overview-penalties-options/

Here's the very informative IRS doc: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/irsfbarreferenceguide.pdf (really helpful bit is pp3-4 showing examples of maximum account value, it also explains penalties for different tiers above the $10k value on pp7-8)

Here's the FINCEN info as well: https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/shared/FBAR%20Line%20Item%20Filing%20Instructions.pdf