Form 14653 Instructions: Certification, Narrative, and FBAR Filing

Form 14653, “Certification by U.S. Person Residing Outside of the United States,” is the sworn statement you sign to enter the IRS Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures, and these Form 14653 instructions walk through what to certify, what narrative to attach, and what has to accompany it in the mail. The form itself is short. The submission around it is not: three years of tax returns, six years of FBARs, all required international information returns, payment of tax and interest, and a factual explanation of why your noncompliance was non-willful.¹

Confirm You’re Eligible Before You Sign Anything

Form 14653 asks you to certify eligibility under penalties of perjury. Get this wrong and you’ve handed the IRS a signed admission of noncompliance without the penalty protection the program offers. Three conditions must all be met.

You Lived Outside the United States

U.S. citizens and green card holders qualify if, in at least one of the most recent three tax years for which the filing deadline has passed, they had no U.S. abode and were physically outside the country for at least 330 full days. Taxpayers who are neither citizens nor permanent residents qualify if, in at least one of those same three years, they did not meet the substantial presence test under IRC Section 7701(b)(3).¹

Your Conduct Was Non-Willful

The failure to file, report income, pay tax, or file information returns must have resulted from negligence, inadvertence, mistake, or a good-faith misunderstanding of the law. If the IRS later concludes your conduct was willful, the waiver evaporates and criminal exposure returns. Taxpayers who suspect their conduct may have been willful are directed by the IRS to consider the Criminal Investigation Voluntary Disclosure Practice instead, and to consult a tax attorney.²

No IRS Examination or Criminal Investigation Is Underway

You cannot use the streamlined procedures if the IRS has already opened a civil examination of your returns for any year, even one unrelated to foreign assets, or if IRS Criminal Investigation has opened a case involving you.²

What Form 14653 Certifies

The form contains three sworn certifications: that you are eligible for the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures, that all required FBARs have now been filed, and that the failures to file, report income, pay tax, and submit information returns resulted from non-willful conduct.¹ You sign under penalties of perjury.

Married taxpayers filing a joint streamlined submission both have to sign, and each spouse must provide a separate explanation of their own non-willful conduct. One combined narrative for both spouses is not acceptable, because each person’s knowledge and circumstances differ.

Writing the Non-Willful Narrative

The narrative statement attached to Form 14653 is the part of the submission that matters most. A generic “I didn’t know” won’t carry the certification. The IRS wants specific facts.

Your narrative should identify the foreign financial assets and transactions involved, explain how you came to hold them, describe your tax filing history, and walk through the circumstances that produced the reporting failures. If you relied on a tax preparer who never asked about foreign accounts, say so and name the firm. If you inherited a foreign trust and didn’t understand the U.S. reporting obligations, lay out the timeline. Facts, not conclusions.

Watch what you write. Statements suggesting you knew about the filing obligation and let it slide, or that you kept accounts hidden from your U.S. preparer, read as willful conduct. A vague or implausible narrative is worse than a spare one, because the sworn statement itself becomes evidence the IRS can use against you if the submission is later reexamined.

What Goes in the Submission Package

Form 14653 does not travel alone. The complete package is filed on paper. Electronic submissions are not accepted.¹

Three Years of Tax Returns

File returns for the most recent three years for which the due date, including extensions, has passed. If you never filed for those years, submit original Form 1040 returns. If you filed but the returns were incomplete or inaccurate, submit Form 1040-X amended returns.¹

All Required Information Returns

Include every international information return that should have accompanied those tax years: Forms 3520, 3520-A, 5471, and 8938 as applicable.¹ Amounts on U.S. returns and information returns must be reported in U.S. dollars, translated at the exchange rate prevailing when the funds were received.³

Red-Ink Label

Write “Streamlined Foreign Offshore” in red ink at the top of the first page of each delinquent or amended return and each information return. Without this label, the IRS may route the submission as a routine late filing and treat it accordingly.¹

Six Years of Delinquent FBARs

File delinquent FBARs for the most recent six years for which the due date has passed. These go electronically through the FinCEN BSA E-Filing System, not in the paper package. On the cover page, select “Other” as the reason for filing late and enter “Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures” in the explanation box.¹ Do not mail FBARs or attach copies of Form 14653 to them.

The Original Form 14653 and Copies on Every Return

Submit the original signed Form 14653 with the package. Then attach a copy of the completed form to each tax return and each information return in the submission. Three years of returns with accompanying Forms 3520 means every one of those documents gets its own copy of the certification.¹

Payment of Tax and Interest

Include payment for all tax due on the returns, plus statutory interest on each late payment amount. Put your taxpayer identification number on the check. The waiver covers penalties. Interest on unpaid tax still accrues and still has to be paid.¹

Where to Mail the Package

Send the entire paper submission to:

Internal Revenue Service
3651 South I-H 35
Stop 6063 AUSC
Attn: Streamlined Foreign Offshore
Austin, TX 78741¹

Any other IRS address will delay processing and can cause the returns to be handled as ordinary late filings rather than streamlined submissions. Use certified mail with return receipt or a designated private delivery service such as FedEx or UPS so you have proof of mailing.

The IRS will not send you an acknowledgment. There is no closing agreement, no acceptance letter, and no confirmation that your streamlined submission was accepted. The returns enter the normal processing stream, and any adjustments eventually appear on your account transcript.²

What the Penalty Waiver Covers

Taxpayers who qualify and follow the instructions will not be assessed failure-to-file penalties, failure-to-pay penalties, accuracy-related penalties, information return penalties, or FBAR penalties on the returns submitted through the program.¹ The protection holds even if one of the streamlined returns is later selected for audit, unless the IRS determines the noncompliance was fraudulent or the FBAR violation was willful.

Two limits are worth knowing. Penalties already assessed for the covered years are not abated. And if an audit finds an additional tax deficiency, the IRS can assess penalties on that additional amount.¹

What Happens After Filing

The streamlined returns are not automatically audited, but they aren’t shielded either. The IRS may select them under normal audit processes and may verify accuracy against records from banks, financial advisors, and other sources.² If an examination concludes the noncompliance was fraudulent or the FBAR violation willful, the waiver is rescinded and criminal exposure returns.

This is why the narrative matters beyond the moment of filing. If your submission gets a second look, the non-willful statement is the document the IRS reads first.

If You Live in the United States, This Isn’t Your Form

Form 14653 is only for taxpayers who satisfy the non-residency test. Taxpayers living in the United States use Form 14654 under the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures. Two differences matter. Under the domestic program you must have previously filed a return for each of the three covered years, so it can’t be used to submit original delinquent returns. And the domestic program imposes a miscellaneous offshore penalty equal to 5% of the highest aggregate balance of your undisclosed foreign financial assets during the covered period.² The foreign offshore program imposes no such penalty.

Before You Assemble the Package

Pull together the documentation you’ll need to prepare accurate returns and a defensible narrative. For foreign trust situations, that means the trust instrument, annual financial statements, distribution records with exact dates and amounts, and records distinguishing income distributions from distributions of trust principal, because the tax treatment differs. For foreign gifts, gather the donor’s identity, the date of each gift, and the amount in the original currency along with the applicable exchange rate.³

Compile six years of foreign account statements for the FBARs and three years of income records for the returns. If you used a tax preparer during the covered years, keep any correspondence showing what you told them and what they asked, because that documentation is often the backbone of a credible non-willful narrative. And any prior IRS correspondence about your foreign assets belongs in your file: if an examination has already been opened, the streamlined procedures are closed to you, and you need to know that before you spend weeks assembling this package.

1
Internal Revenue Service. U.S. Taxpayers Residing Outside the United States
2
Internal Revenue Service. Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures
3
Internal Revenue Service. Foreign Currency and Currency Exchange Rates