Filing Fee for 3520, 3520-A, FBAR, and 1040 with 8938

[Mrk11]

I would like to know how much is a reasonable fee for filing 1040 tax returns with form 8938 reporting five (5) foreign accounts, and a separate form-114 FBAR. I also, realized that two of the foreign accounts, a TFSA, and an RSP are going to require foreign trust treatment on forms 3520 and 3520-A. Can I get some ideas on how much is typically charged for preparing and filing these returns, both on the lower end and the upper end? I would really appreciate your help.

[ATSMAN]

I do not have a lot of clients that request me to file FBAR but those who do I charge flat $100 (up to 5 foreign accounts). Any work that is on top of that for any reason is quoted on an hourly basis, min 1 hr.

I don't know of any client with a foreign trust but I have had clients receiving gifts from foreign individuals that required filings.

[Lion]

My hourly fee, bumped up a bit for "foreign" issues. I almost always get my clients to e-file their own FBARs, because they have to pull out their own account statements anyway.

[mhcpa1964]

I charge $125 for the FBAR for up to 5 foreign accounts. The client supplies the information upon my request. The fee is in addition to the tax return.

[Rapid Robert]

I suppose this forum is not subject to anti-competitive regulation, but I know on at least one CPA tax forum they shut down any fee discussions right away because of ethics or something like that. (I don't really care here).

The forms under discussion are not that hard to fill (if supported properly by your software), but they are somewhat uncommon and the possible penalties for failing to file or filing incorrectly can be very high. I used to do them for a few clients and I don't remember offhand but $100 or a little more seems reasonable, subject to general year to year global fee increases (just like my software vendor bumps up all my charges by 2-5% each year, it seems), especially because the FBAR is a separate efling process (supported by my software).

Then there is the factor of repetition. The FBAR and 8938 have a lot of overlap, so I might bundle the fee if both are involved but I only have to enter the data once. Also, subsequent years might be as simple as just one currency conversion lookup (2 minutes). So maybe the first year fee gets discounted a little in subsequent years, it could generate some cheap goodwill.

Don't forget friends and relatives of your client as well. For a number of years I did the returns of 3 brothers who each had a savings account in India funded by their parents. Apparently it is not easy to convert rupees in India into dollars in America, because I suggested to them several times they just move the money to this country. I gave them a family discount on the FBAR/8938 prep fees.

[ATSMAN]

Don't forget friends and relatives of your client as well. For a number of years I did the returns of 3 brothers who each had a savings account in India funded by their parents. Apparently it is not easy to convert rupees in India into dollars in America, because I suggested to them several times they just move the money to this country. I gave them a family discount on the FBAR/8938 prep fees.

I have an Indian family as a client and what I understand from them is that in India the regular savings accounts can not be converted from rupees to US dollars. There is a special type of savings account called NRE and any money in that account can be converted to US dollars. Also you just can't convert indian rupees into US dollars in large amounts without the permission of the Reserve Bank Of India which is a long drawn out process. So many Indians use backlane channels to convert Indian Rupees into US dollars . It is illegal but supposedly that is the only way you get Indian cash out of the country!