Americans living in South Korea hold their savings in won, but the IRS thresholds that trigger FBAR and FATCA (Form 8938) reporting are written in US dollars. That mismatch is exactly where people slip up. This FBAR / FATCA threshold checker for Americans in Korea converts your KRW account balances to USD at the correct year-end rate and tells you, in plain language, whether you must file the FBAR (FinCEN Form 114), Form 8938, both, or neither. No other tool is built to take won balances and apply the dollar tests — that KRW-aware angle is the whole point.
Enter your highest combined foreign account balance for the year and your filing status, and the checker applies the $10,000 FBAR test and the FATCA thresholds (which differ for taxpayers living abroad) and converts everything to USD.
Americans abroad routinely confuse these, so start here. The FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is filed with the Treasury's FinCEN, electronically, and is triggered when the combined high balance of all your foreign accounts tops $10,000 at any point in the year. FATCA reporting is Form 8938, filed with your tax return to the IRS, and its thresholds are much higher and depend on whether you live abroad and your filing status. You can owe one, both, or neither — this checker evaluates each separately.
The FBAR threshold is tiny and aggregate. Add up the highest balance each of your Korean accounts reached during the year — checking, savings, brokerage, even some pension and certain insurance accounts — and if the combined figure ever exceeded $10,000, you must file. At a rate around 1,380 KRW/USD, $10,000 is only about 13.8 million KRW, a balance many salaried expats cross without thinking. The test is "any time during the year," not year-end, so a brief spike counts.
FATCA is friendlier to genuine expats because the thresholds for taxpayers living abroad are far higher than for those in the US:
| Who | File if year-end balance over | or any-time high over |
|---|---|---|
| Single / separate, living abroad | $200,000 | $300,000 |
| Married filing jointly, living abroad | $400,000 | $600,000 |
| Single / separate, living in the US | $50,000 | $75,000 |
| Married filing jointly, living in the US | $100,000 | $150,000 |
Note the "either/or" structure: you file if either the year-end balance or the any-time high exceeds your threshold. The checker tests both.
For both forms you convert using the Treasury year-end exchange rate (the Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange) for December 31 of the reporting year — not the rate on the day each balance peaked. So you find each account's highest balance in won, then convert that won figure at the single year-end rate. The calculator uses the rate you enter; for filing, pull the official December 31 KRW rate from the Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service.
Suppose your accounts peaked at a combined 20,000,000 KRW mid-year and held 18,000,000 KRW at year-end, single and living abroad, at 1,380 KRW/USD:
The result: file the FBAR, skip Form 8938. This is the most common pattern for ordinary expat employees — the won balance easily clears the small FBAR bar but stays nowhere near the high FATCA bar.
Reportable foreign financial accounts include Korean bank checking and savings, securities/brokerage accounts, and certain pension and cash-value insurance accounts. Accounts where you have signature authority but no financial interest can also trigger an FBAR. Physical assets you hold directly — real estate, gold in a safe, won cash — are not accounts and are not reported on the FBAR, although foreign real estate held through an entity can pull that entity into reporting.
The FBAR is filed electronically through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System; its due date follows the tax-return date with an automatic extension to October, so it effectively lines up with your extended return. Form 8938 is attached to your Form 1040 and follows the return's deadline, including the automatic extension expats get. Because both ride along with your return timeline, the practical move is to determine your requirements early using this checker, then file them together.
FBAR penalties are notoriously harsh. Non-willful failures can draw a penalty per violation, while willful failures can reach the greater of a large fixed amount or 50% of the account balance, plus potential criminal exposure. Form 8938 carries its own penalties and can extend the IRS audit window. The thresholds are low and the stakes are high, which is precisely why a quick KRW-to-USD check each year is worth the few minutes.
If you only just learned about these forms — extremely common for accidental and long-term expats — the IRS Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures exist for non-willful taxpayers to catch up on past FBARs and returns, often without penalty for those living abroad who certify non-willfulness. Do not simply start filing this year and ignore the back years; use the proper catch-up program with professional guidance.
Under FATCA, Korean banks report US-person account information to the authorities, which flows to the IRS — which is why Korean banks ask US customers for tax forms. Assume the IRS can see your Korean accounts. That reality makes silent non-filing a poor bet and underscores the value of getting your FBAR/8938 status right from the start.
The thresholds used here ($10,000 FBAR; $200k/$300k single-abroad and $400k/$600k MFJ-abroad for Form 8938, with the lower US-resident figures) are the standard IRS/FinCEN tests, and the KRW-to-USD conversion is exact at the rate you enter. It does not capture every nuance — signature-authority-only accounts, certain account types, or jointly owned accounts can change the analysis — so treat a "required" result as a firm prompt to file and a "not required" result as a green light to double-check mid-year peaks.
You must file the FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) if the combined highest balance of all your foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the year. At about 1,380 KRW per USD that is roughly 13.8 million KRW, so many salaried expats cross it. The test is the any-time high across all accounts, not the year-end balance.
For taxpayers living abroad, Form 8938 is required if your foreign financial assets exceed $200,000 on the last day of the year or $300,000 at any time (single or filing separately), or $400,000 year-end / $600,000 any-time for married filing jointly. These expat thresholds are much higher than the $50,000/$75,000 that apply to US residents.
Use the Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange for December 31 of the year being reported. You take each account's highest balance in won, then convert it to US dollars at that single year-end rate, rather than using the rate on the day each balance peaked.
Yes, and it is the most common situation for ordinary expat employees. A won balance can easily exceed the small $10,000 FBAR threshold while staying far below the $200,000-plus FATCA thresholds for people living abroad, so you file the FBAR only.
Korean bank checking and savings, securities and brokerage accounts, and certain pension and cash-value insurance accounts are reportable. Accounts where you only have signature authority can also trigger an FBAR. Physical assets like real estate, gold, or cash held directly are not financial accounts and are not reported on the FBAR.
Non-willful failures can draw a penalty per violation, and willful failures can reach the greater of a large fixed amount or 50% of the account balance, with potential criminal exposure. Form 8938 has its own penalties and can extend the audit period, which is why getting your status right each year matters.
The IRS Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures let non-willful taxpayers catch up on past FBARs and returns, often without penalty for those living abroad who certify non-willfulness. Use the proper catch-up program with professional guidance rather than quietly filing only the current year.