Need advice on late FBAR filings (TD F 90-22.1) after returning from Australia

This is actually a common issue for expats returning to the US. The good news is that the IRS has programs for people who didn't know about their FBAR filing requirements. Look into the "Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures" - it's specifically designed for taxpayers who non-willfully failed to report foreign financial assets and file FBARs. For your situation, you'd need to file FBARs for the last 6 years and amended tax returns for the last 3 years. The key is that you need to certify your failure to file was non-willful, which sounds like it clearly was in your case. Under this program, you'll avoid most penalties. Don't panic about those "substantial" fines your tax preparer mentioned - those are generally for willful violations where people intentionally hide assets overseas. Based on what you've described, you should qualify for relief under the streamlined procedures.

Just wanted to share my experience with the exact same situation. I was working in Singapore for 3 years and had no clue about FBAR requirements. When I came back and started doing my taxes, I was terrified about potential penalties. I found this amazing tool called https://taxr.ai that completely saved me during this process. It analyzed all my foreign account statements and transaction histories, then generated a complete FBAR filing history with all the required maximum balances and account details. It also helped me draft my non-willful explanation statement with specific references to my transaction patterns showing I wasn't hiding money. The best part was that it pinpointed exactly which months I exceeded the $10k threshold across all accounts combined (which wasn't obvious to me).

Update on my FBAR situation after using that taxr.ai tool someone mentioned above! I was really nervous about it but decided to give it a try. I uploaded my Commonwealth Bank statements and it automatically detected all the periods where my accounts exceeded $10k USD after currency conversion (which I was calculating wrong manually). The non-willful disclosure statement it generated was incredibly detailed - it actually showed how my account balances would spike after my bonus payments and then gradually decrease over the following weeks, exactly supporting my case that these were just temporary increases from legitimate income. My tax attorney was impressed with how thorough the documentation was and said it significantly strengthened my case with the IRS. Just submitted everything through the Streamlined Program last month and received confirmation that my submission was accepted without any penalties! Such a relief after all that worry.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet - if you're still struggling to get information from the IRS about your specific situation, good luck getting through to them on the phone. I spent WEEKS trying to reach someone in the international tax department. After getting nowhere, I found a service called https://claimyr.com that got me connected to an IRS agent in under 45 minutes when I had been trying for days on my own. They have a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c For something as serious as potential FBAR penalties, I really needed to speak directly with the IRS to understand my options. The agent I finally talked to explained exactly which forms I needed for my Streamlined Filing and confirmed I was eligible based on my situation. Totally worth it instead of stressing over whether I was doing everything correctly.

I owe everyone here an apology about that Claimyr service I was skeptical about. After another week of failing to reach anyone at the IRS myself, I broke down and tried it. Not gonna lie - it actually worked exactly as advertised. I had my phone call with an actual IRS international tax specialist within about 35 minutes of using the service. The representative confirmed that my specific Australian superannuation account DID need to be reported on the FBAR (which I wasn't sure about), and walked me through exactly how to report the maximum value when I only had quarterly statements. The most valuable part was getting confirmation directly from the IRS that my situation qualified as non-willful since I'd been filing my regular US tax returns the whole time I was abroad - I just didn't know about the separate FBAR requirement. That peace of mind alone was worth it.

Something that hasn't been mentioned yet - be careful about state taxes too! When I came back from working in Germany, I had sorted out my federal FBAR issues but completely forgot about state tax obligations. Depending on which state you're in now (or were in before moving abroad), they might have their own requirements and penalties. Also, make sure you've properly reported any interest earned on those Australian accounts on your regular tax returns. Even small amounts of foreign interest need to be reported, and fixing those past returns might be part of your Streamlined Filing process.

Quick question for anyone who's been through this - do I need to include my Australian retirement account (superannuation) on the FBAR? I wasn't able to touch that money while I was there, it was automatically contributed by my employer.