Hi,

Me and my family (Indian) are on Green Card and have been living here for more than a year now. My mother is a housewife and my younger brother(18) is student, either of them don't work.
Before moving here, we have our financial assets in banks not NRO/NRI accounts but in normal savings account there in India. There is one joint account of my brother with mother that rounds about $45K, and mine and dad's have $8000 each. We have only one NRO account of my mom that has not more than $5000.

So, these accounts should be shown in tax filing purposes by my father who will be filing jointly this year ? Please help.

Thanks in advance.

Yes, the interest from these account must be shown on Schedule B, which is filed with Form 1040.

Additionally, the account information must be reported separately on the FBAR and possibly on Form 8938 with your tax return.

But, my friends have never shown the similar thing from years, and have shown only NRI/NRO if they have more than $10K in account.

But, my friends have never shown the similar thing from years, and have shown only NRI/NRO if they have more than $10K in account.



It shouldn't really matter what your friends do, it matters what is the correct way.
Or as my MIL would say "If your friend jumps from a roof, would you jump too?"

You might want to point out to them that they might not have been doing it correclty.

While the FBAR requirement has been around for decades, only in the past few years has the requirement been emphasized. You have been given fair warning! Ignore this requirement at your own risk!