Today the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network posted a “FBAR Due Date Clarification” on its website, which confirms that the annual filing deadline for FinCEN Form 114 (commonly referred to as the FBAR form) is April 15.  in 2015, Congress passed a law changing the FBAR due date from June 30 to April 15 in order to coincide with the federal income tax filing deadline.  Like the tax filing deadline, the FBAR filing deadline will be delayed to the next business day if April 15 is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday.  For the 2017 calendar year, the tax return and FBAR filing deadline is April 17, 2018, because April 15 is a Sunday, and April 16 is a legal holiday in the District of Columbia (see prior coverage here).

FinCEN’s notice also confirmed that filers may take advantage of an automatic six-month filing extension if they wish.  It is not necessary to file any form in order to request an extension; such extensions are granted automatically.  Filers who fail to file their FBAR by April 17 will be granted an automatic extension to October 15, 2018.

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