Time to sort this out...

Spent all day reading stuff on this forum and thinking I have some work to do and wondering how much trouble I might be in?

I am a US citizen living in the UK since 1989. I have permanent leave to live in the UK (wife is British). I have not filed any US tax returns since I moved over here in 1989, didn't think I had to. I have been employed for pretty much the whole time I have been in the UK. The last 12 years I owned a business and sold it in February 2015. Of course I had to pay capital gains here in the UK. Today I got an email from my accountant and he pointed out I may have to file an FBAR return.

Considering I have had no contact with the IRS in nearly 27 years what sort of can of worms am I opening up here?

Did you take professional advice in the UK when you ran & sold the business? What advice did your accountant give or not give you? If you were not given correct advice why not? When you use the streamlined procedures you will need to explain this all to the IRS...

Thanks for the speedy reply.

The issue of me being a US citizen and US tax returns never came up with my accountant until today. We never discussed it. In hindsight I probably should have discussed it with him at some stage. I was ignorant of the fact that it was relevant. He only dealt with my UK taxes.