Foreign retirement accounts

A foreign retirement plan is FBAR reportable when it's structured as a real account with a balance — like a defined-contribution workplace pension — and you have financial interest or signature authority over it, with your combined foreign accounts exceeding $10,000 at any point in the year. Plans that are really just a promise of future periodic payments, such as a government pension, don't have a discrete account balance and generally fall outside FBAR entirely, though defined-benefit private pensions sit in a murkier middle ground. TFX's FBAR vs. FATCA guide covers how account-based foreign assets get evaluated for this threshold.

Yes — once contributions land in your foreign pension account, the entire balance counts toward your $10,000 aggregate FBAR threshold, regardless of whether the money came from you, your employer, or both. FBAR looks at the account's total value, not the source of the funds inside it, so an account funded mostly or entirely by employer contributions is treated exactly the same as one you funded yourself. See TFX's FBAR vs. 8938 guide for how account values are aggregated across all your foreign accounts.

The FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is filed with the Treasury Department once your combined foreign accounts exceed $10,000, while Form 8938 is filed with your IRS tax return at a much higher threshold ($200,000–$600,000 depending on filing status and residency) and covers a broader range of assets — not just accounts, but pension and deferred-compensation arrangements more generally. A pension with a real account balance can trigger both forms at the same time, since they're separate filing obligations with different agencies, thresholds, and penalty structures, not an either/or choice. TFX compares the two directly in its FBAR vs. FATCA guide and its broader foreign asset disclosure comparison.

Generally, yes — NEST and similar UK workplace pensions are defined-contribution schemes with an actual account balance, so once you have interest or signature authority over the account and your foreign accounts collectively exceed $10,000, it's FBAR reportable. This is different from the UK State Pension, which is a government benefit stream rather than an account and typically isn't FBAR reportable at all. TFX's UK pension taxation guide walks through how workplace pensions are treated for US reporting.

Yes — a Swiss Pillar 2 (BVG) occupational pension is an account-based plan, so it becomes FBAR reportable once your combined foreign accounts exceed $10,000 on any day during the year, and it's separately reportable on Form 8938 once you cross the FATCA threshold. This puts Pillar 2 in a different category from Swiss Pillar 1 (AHV, the state social security equivalent), which is a benefit stream rather than an account. TFX's Swiss pension and US taxes guide breaks down all three pillars and their reporting treatment.

For FBAR purposes, report the highest balance the pension account reached at any point during the calendar year, converted to US dollars using the Treasury Reporting Rate of Exchange for December 31 of that year — not the exchange rate on the actual date of the peak balance. The same maximum-value approach applies whether the fluctuation came from investment performance, contributions, or currency movement; you don't need to track the exact date of the peak, just the highest balance itself. TFX's FBAR vs. FATCA guide explains this valuation methodology in more detail.

No — a government pension like the UK State Pension is a periodic benefit payment, not a financial account, so it's generally not reportable on either the FBAR or Form 8938; the income itself, however, is still fully taxable and must be reported on your 1040. This is a useful distinction to hold onto: reporting obligations track the existence of an account, while tax obligations track the income, so a pension can escape asset-reporting requirements while still being fully subject to US income tax. TFX's UK pension taxation guide covers how the State Pension is taxed under the US-UK treaty.

No — being retired doesn't exempt foreign pension income from US tax; the US taxes worldwide income regardless of age or retirement status, and there's no general carve-out just because the money is a pension. A tax-free treatment your pension gets in the host country — like the UK's 25% tax-free pension commencement lump sum — doesn't carry over to your US return, where that same amount is fully taxable as ordinary income; the narrow exceptions that do exist come from specific tax treaty provisions, not from being retired. See TFX's guide to reporting foreign income on Form 1040 for how pension income fits into your return.

Yes — foreign retirement income is taxed the same way as any other worldwide income for US citizens and green card holders, and unlike wages, it can't be sheltered by the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, since Form 2555 doesn't cover pensions or other passive income. The main tools for avoiding double taxation on this income are the Foreign Tax Credit (Form 1116), which offsets US tax with foreign tax already paid, and in some cases specific tax treaty provisions that reassign taxing rights between the US and your country of residence. TFX's foreign income reporting guide covers where this income lands on your return and how relief works.

Foreign pension and retirement distributions are reported on Form 1040, Lines 5a (gross amount) and 5b (taxable amount), the same lines used for domestic pension income. If you're claiming a treaty-based position to reduce or reassign the US tax on that income, you'll generally also need Form 8833 to disclose it, and depending on the account itself, separate FBAR and Form 8938 filings may be required alongside the income reporting. TFX's guide to reporting foreign income on Form 1040 walks through the full picture.