Is It Illegal to Avoid FATCA?

Offshore Tax with HTJ.tax · Oct 1, 2025 · 5m

Owning foreign accounts or assets isn’t illegal, and it’s not inherently unlawful to fall outside FATCA’s scope. The real issue is knowing what counts as a reportable asset and making sure you’re not failing to disclose something that is covered.FATCA is primarily an information-reporting regime. For individuals, this means filing Form 8938 (Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets) if the value of certain foreign assets exceeds set thresholds. These “specified assets” include accounts at foreign banks or brokerages, as well as stock in foreign corporations.Not everything is…