US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network Wants Americans To Report Offshore Crypto Accounts

The US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) says it plans to require Americans to disclose whether they hold $10,000 or more in cryptocurrency in offshore accounts.

The agency published a notice on the change, which will amend the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).

“Currently, the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) regulations do not define a foreign account holding virtual currency as a type of reportable account. (See 31 CFR 1010.350(c)). For that reason, at this time, a foreign account holding virtual currency is not reportable on the FBAR (unless it is a reportable account under 31 C.F.R. 1010.350 because it holds reportable assets besides virtual currency).

However, FinCEN intends to propose to amend the regulations implementing the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regarding reports of foreign financial accounts (FBAR) to include virtual currency as a type of reportable account under 31 CFR 1010.350.”

So far, there is no timeline on when the change will happen.

The move comes after the Treasury proposed new rules that would require financial institutions to record and report certain transactions sent to private crypto wallets.

The department is poised to go through a leadership shakeup, with the Biden administration taking over on January 20th.

President-elect Biden has named ex-Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen as his nominee for Treasury Secretary.

She will be the first woman ever to hold the position if she is confirmed by the Senate.