As tax season is now upon us, I want to reiterate the need for treasury and finance professionals that have custody, or some form of control, over their company's foreign bank accounts to evualate if you have an individual IRS reporting responsibility. Yes, an individual reporting responsiblity! The rules are very clear that if you have signatory authority over your corporation’s foreign accounts, even though you do not have a financial interest in those accounts, you have a Foreign Bank Account Reporting (FBAR) responsibility. Likewise, if you merely have the ability to direct the flow of cash in foreign accounts, alone or in conjunction with another person, you may be scoped in the guidance (e.g. initiate wires transfers). If you meet the FBAR reporting requirements, you are required to (1) check box 7a and 7b on Form 1040, which is due to the IRS by April 15th (unless granted an extension), and (2) fill out the additional IRS reporting form, TD F 90-22.1, due by June 30, 2012. Some, but not all, companies provide the form already filled out to their affected employees. However, many do not.
