Form 8938 vs FBAR for US Expats in NZ: The $200,000 vs $10,000 Threshold Gap, With Examples

If you're a US citizen living in New Zealand, FBAR and Form 8938 are two different reports with two very different trigger points. FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) kicks in once your foreign accounts top US$10,000 combined at any point in the year. Form 8938 — for expats — doesn't even start until US$200,000 on the last day of the year, or US$300,000 at any point (single filers; double those numbers if married filing jointly). That gap is why most Kiwi-based Americans file FBAR every year but only sometimes file 8938 — and why the two are not interchangeable.

The two forms do different jobs

FBAR and Form 8938 are often discussed together because they both ask about your overseas money, but they live in different parts of the US system and answer to different masters.

• FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is filed with the US Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network — not with your tax return. It exists under the Bank Secrecy Act. Per the IRS, you must file it when "the aggregate value of those foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year reported" (IRS — Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts).
• Form 8938 (Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets) is filed with your Form 1040 income tax return, under FATCA. It captures a broader set of assets and has the much higher abroad thresholds described below (IRS — Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR Requirements).

Because they're separate filings to separate agencies, hitting one threshold tells you nothing about the other. You have to test both, every year, independently.

Form 8938 thresholds when you live abroad

The single most important thing a US expat in New Zealand should know is that the Form 8938 thresholds are higher for people who live overseas than for people inside the US. To use the abroad thresholds you generally need to meet the bona fide residence or physical presence test — which most Americans genuinely settled in New Zealand will satisfy.

Straight from the IRS comparison page, the abroad thresholds are:

You file Form 8938 if you cross either the year-end figure or the peak figure. So a single expat whose NZ assets briefly spiked to US$310,000 mid-year must file 8938 even if they were back under $200,000 by 31 December. Source: IRS — Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR Requirements.

Contrast that with FBAR's flat US$10,000 aggregate-at-any-point trigger, which is the same whether you live in Auckland or Atlanta. For most expats, the practical result is: you almost certainly file FBAR; you only file 8938 once your portfolio is sizeable.

Worked example: the $150,000 portfolio that triggers FBAR but not 8938

Worked example: the $250,000 portfolio that triggers both

If Daniel were married and filing jointly with another US person, his US$200,000 line would become US$400,000, and a US$250,000 year-end total would not trigger 8938 — illustrating how much the joint-filer doubling changes the answer.

Which NZ assets count for 8938 but not FBAR

This is where Kiwi-based Americans get tripped up. Form 8938 has a wider net. The IRS comparison page lists assets that go on Form 8938 but are not reported on FBAR, and in a New Zealand context these typically include:

• Direct NZX shares held outside a financial account — for example shares registered to you with a Common Shareholder Number (CSN), not sitting inside a custodial brokerage account. These are "foreign stock or securities held outside financial accounts" — an 8938 item, not an FBAR item.
• Interests in a New Zealand partnership or look-through company.
• Foreign-issued life insurance or annuity contracts with a cash surrender value — a common one if you hold a legacy NZ policy.
• Interests in certain foreign funds and unlisted investment vehicles held directly rather than through a brokerage account.

Conversely, some things go on FBAR but not 8938 — for example an account at a foreign branch of a US bank, and accounts where you only have signature authority but no financial interest. Source for both lists: IRS — Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR Requirements.

KiwiSaver's exact treatment depends on its structure and your facts; most US-NZ practitioners report it on both FBAR and 8938 as a conservative position. This is a known grey area — confirm with a cross-border specialist.

Why filing FBAR does not satisfy 8938 (and vice versa)

There is no offset between the two. They are filed with different agencies on different timelines, and the IRS is explicit that meeting one obligation does not relieve the other. If you cross both thresholds, you genuinely report the same KiwiSaver balance, the same ASB account, and the same Sharesies account on two separate forms in the same year. That feels like duplication — and it is — but it's required duplication.

The practical workflow for an expat who clears both lines:

1. File FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR) electronically through the BSA E-Filing System for every foreign financial account.
2. Attach Form 8938 to your Form 1040, listing the specified foreign financial assets — including the broader 8938-only items like direct NZX shares.
3. Keep the two consistent where they overlap, and document the items that appear on only one.

Penalty exposure: the $10,000 that stacks on top of FBAR risk

The numbers here are why this isn't a paperwork footnote. Per the IRS, failure to file Form 8938 carries a penalty of up to US$10,000, plus an additional US$10,000 for each 30 days of non-filing after the IRS sends notice of a failure to disclose, up to a maximum additional US$50,000 — a potential total of US$60,000 (IRS — Basic Questions and Answers on Form 8938).

Critically, that 8938 penalty sits on top of separate FBAR penalty exposure — non-willful FBAR penalties run per-violation and willful penalties can be far larger. Because the two regimes are independent, a single mistake (say, ignoring a sizeable NZ portfolio) can expose you to penalties under both at once. There are also accuracy-related and fraud penalties tied to any unreported income from those assets.