FBAR vs. FATCA: What US Expats in Denmark Actually Need to Know

You already have a filing obligation. The question is whether you know about it.

You moved to Denmark. You opened a NemKonto at Arbejdernes Landsbank so your employer could pay you. Your company enrolled you in a pension scheme. You maybe opened an Aktiesparekonto account to invest while you’re here. None of those institutions mentioned that each account you opened may have triggered a US reporting requirement.

That’s the standard experience. FBAR and FATCA aren’t things Danish banks explain at onboarding. They’re obligations that follow you from the US side, and the IRS isn’t going to send a reminder.

The good news is that the mechanics aren’t complicated once you’ve seen them laid out. The two forms do different things, go to different places, and have different thresholds. This article covers both.

One caveat before we start: this is a mechanics explainer. It covers how the rules work and what your Danish accounts are likely to trigger. Whether you have additional complexity (treaty positions, pension exclusions, a Danish ApS) is where a cross-border tax professional earns their fee, not this article.

FBAR: the account report that goes to Treasury, not the IRS

FBAR stands for Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. It’s filed on FinCEN Form 114, submitted electronically through the BSA E-Filing System. It does not go to the IRS. It goes to FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau of the US Treasury. The full FBAR guidance lives at fincen.gov if you want to read it from the source.

The trigger is simple: if the aggregate maximum value of all your foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any point during the calendar year, you have to file. That’s a combined total across all accounts, not a per-account threshold. A NemKonto that peaked at $6,000 and a Nordnet account that peaked at $5,000 on the same day crosses the line, even if neither account individually did.

Every account you held counts: checking accounts, savings accounts, brokerage accounts, pension accounts. The rule reaches broadly. If it’s a financial account at a foreign institution, it’s almost certainly in scope.

The FBAR covers the prior calendar year and is due April 15, with an automatic extension to October 15 that requires no action on your part. You don’t file a form to get the extension. You just have until October 15. That extension is separate from any extension you file for your federal tax return. The IRS has a plain-English overview at irs.gov if you want the deadline and scope details in one place.

FATCA and Form 8938: the asset report that goes to the IRS

FATCA is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, passed in 2010. The individual reporting obligation under FATCA is Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets. Unlike FBAR, Form 8938 is filed with the IRS, attached directly to your federal tax return (Form 1040). Same deadline as your return. The IRS overview is at irs.gov/fatca.

The thresholds are higher than FBAR, and they depend on your filing status and whether you qualify as living abroad. For most Americans living and working in Denmark full-time, the relevant thresholds are those for taxpayers with a foreign tax home who meet the 330-day presence test or bona fide foreign residence test.

If you’re unmarried or married filing separately, you need to file Form 8938 if your specified foreign financial assets exceeded $200,000 on the last day of the tax year, or $300,000 at any point during the year. If you’re married filing jointly, those figures double: $400,000 at year-end, or $600,000 at any point. The lower thresholds for US-based filers don’t apply if Denmark is genuinely your tax home. Current thresholds are confirmed in the Form 8938 instructions at irs.gov/instructions/i8938.

Form 8938 also covers a broader range of assets than FBAR. It reaches foreign financial accounts, but also foreign stocks, bonds, and interests in foreign entities that aren’t held through an account. In practice for most Denmark-based expats, the overlap with FBAR is near-total. But for someone with interests in a Danish ApS or a foreign investment held outside a brokerage account, Form 8938 may require disclosures that FBAR doesn’t.

FBAR vs. FATCA: the key differences at a glance

Full comparison: irs.gov — FBAR and Form 8938 comparison

That last row matters: FBAR is required regardless of whether you have to file a US tax return. Form 8938 is only required if you’re already filing a return. If you’re in a year where your income is fully excluded under the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and you don’t have to file a 1040, you still have to file the FBAR if your accounts crossed $10,000.

Which of your Danish accounts are in scope

Almost everything you’ve opened since arriving in Denmark counts toward at least one of these thresholds.

Your NemKonto is a foreign financial account. If it’s at Arbejdernes Landsbank, Danske Bank, or anywhere else, it counts. A savings account (opsparingskonto) at the same bank counts separately. A brokerage account at Nordnet or Saxo counts. These are all squarely inside FBAR scope, and inside Form 8938 scope if you hit the higher thresholds. The IRS FBAR overview at irs.gov has the full account definition if you want to check a specific account type.

Pension accounts are where it gets more nuanced. Workplace pensions in Denmark — Ratepension, Aldersopsparing, Livrenteordning — are often reportable on FBAR once the aggregate threshold is crossed, but the treatment of pension accounts has enough complexity that it’s worth confirming with a cross-border adviser rather than assuming either way. If your Ratepension is in scope, the value to report is the account balance, not just your own contributions. Danish pension funds and brokerage holdings can also raise a separate issue: if the underlying investments are classified as PFICs (Passive Foreign Investment Companies), there are additional US tax reporting obligations beyond FBAR and FATCA – PFIC reporting obligations. If your employer has been contributing for two years and the balance sits at DKK 250,000 (roughly $36,000 at current rates), that full balance counts toward your FBAR aggregate.

For Form 8938, Danish pensions are generally in scope too. The IRS FAQ on foreign pensions is at irs.gov/instructions/i8938. There’s a provision in the US-Denmark tax treaty that may allow certain pension plans to be excluded, but whether a specific plan qualifies for that treatment depends on how the plan is structured and how the treaty position is applied to your return. That’s a professional judgment call, not a read-the-article-and-decide situation.

What “signature authority” means, and why it catches people off guard

You don’t have to own an account to have an FBAR obligation. If you have signature authority over a foreign financial account, even with no personal financial interest in it, that may still require FBAR reporting. The definition of signature authority is covered in FinCEN’s guidance at fincen.gov.

In a Danish context, this catches two groups: employees who have signing authority on a corporate bank account at their Danish employer, and directors of a Danish ApS who can authorize transactions from the company account. The account belongs to the company. But if your name is on it as an authorized signatory, you may have a personal FBAR filing obligation.

What to do if you’re behind on filings

If you’ve been living in Denmark for a few years and this is the first you’ve heard of FBAR, you’re not alone. The Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedure (SFOP) is an IRS program built for exactly this situation. 

Under Streamlined, you file 3 years of amended or delinquent federal tax returns and 6 years of FBARs, certify that your non-compliance was non-willful (meaning: a genuine mistake, not deliberate concealment), and pay a 0% offshore penalty. That’s the offshore version. The domestic version (Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures) applies if you didn’t qualify as a foreign resident during the relevant years, and carries a 5% penalty instead.

To use the offshore version, you need to qualify as a bona fide foreign resident or meet the 330-day physical presence test for the years in question. Whether you qualify depends on your specific years, how your residency is established, and whether you’ve had any prior IRS contact — a professional should confirm eligibility before you file anything under Streamlined.

Two things that matter on timing: first, Streamlined is only available before the IRS has contacted you about the non-filing. Once they’ve reached out, that window closes. Second, this is not a procedure to run yourself. The non-willfulness certification is a legal declaration with real consequences. If you certify non-willfulness inaccurately, or file in a way that’s inconsistent with your actual history, you don’t just fail to fix the problem — you can end up in a worse position than if you’d done nothing. A cross-border tax professional with Streamlined experience should be reviewing the filing, not just the underlying returns.

What to actually do now

If you’re currently compliant and just want to confirm your process: check your aggregate account balances across everything — NemKonto, savings, Nordnet or Saxo brokerage, and pension balance from your provider’s portal. If the combined maximum at any point during the year exceeded $10,000, you’re filing FBAR. Use the BSA E-Filing System. If your total foreign financial assets exceeded the Form 8938 thresholds for your filing status, attach it to your 1040.

FBAR has an automatic extension to October 15. Your 1040 (and attached Form 8938) has an automatic June 15 extension for expats, with a further extension to October 15 available on request via Form 4868.

If you’re behind: stop, read the Streamlined guidance, and talk to a cross-border tax professional before filing anything. The IRS maintains a directory of credentialed tax professionals. For Denmark-specific cross-border work, look specifically for CPAs or enrolled agents with international tax experience, not just general expat tax firms.