The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (notorious by the acronym FinCEN), which is tasked with monitoring for violations of US financial laws, wants Americans to report themselves if they possess more than $10,000 in cryptocurrencies acquired through foreign financial or virtual asset service providers.
FinCEN announced its plans to amend the Bank Secrecy Act’s regulations in a rule changing notice made on New Year’s Eve, just three weeks before the term of its current leadership is scheduled to end.
According to a brief notice published Thursday, “FinCEN plans to amend the regulations implementing the Bank Secrecy Act in connection to reporting of foreign financial accounts (FBAR) to include digital currencies as a type of a reportable asset account.”
The regulator did not produce a schedule for when this new proposal is at least expected to be implemented.
On the surface, the rule change appears to bring FBAR rules around crypto holdings in line with rules regarding cash held outside the U.S. by citizens. It will affect mostly the users of crypto exchanges like Bitstamp and Bitfinex.
For now, FBARs must be filed out by private individuals who have a total of over $10,000 in foreign financial accounts, including foreign currency. Presently regulations do not designate digital currencies as an FBAR-reportable account. The proposed amendment would end that exemption.
According to the website of the Internal Revenue Service, FBARs must contain the name on the account, the designated account number, name and address of the foreign bank, type of the said account, and the maximum value held there throughout the year.
