The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced today that California wildfire victims in affected areas of California have until January 31, 2018, to file their Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) report for the 2016 calendar year. The FBAR for calendar year 2016 would otherwise have been due October 15, 2017.

FinCEN is now offering this expanded relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as qualifying for individual assistance or public assistance. Currently, nine counties in California are eligible for individual assistance or public assistance: Butte, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Solano, Sonoma, and Yuba. Should FBAR filers in other localities affected by the California wildfires be deemed eligible for individual assistance or public assistance at a later date, they will automatically receive the same filing relief.

In addition, FinCEN will work with any FBAR filer who lives outside the disaster area but whose records required to meet the deadline are located in the affected area regardless of where the filer resides. FBAR filers who live outside the disaster area seeking assistance in meeting their filing obligations (including firefighters and workers assisting the relief activities who are affiliated with a recognized government or philanthropic organization), should contact the FinCEN Resource Center at 800-767-2825 (703-905-3591 not toll free) or FRC@fincen.gov.

As we noted in prior posts (here, here, and here), FinCEN previously afforded FBAR filing relief for victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.