Somebody realises the Indian accounts they have held since before they moved should
have been reported for years. The internet answers with a wall of penalty figures and advertising.
The Internal Revenue Service publishes a route back for people whose failure was not deliberate, and
the two gates on it are stated plainly on its own page. This checks the gates. Nothing you enter
leaves your browser.
Where you stand
The rulebook, verified
The gate is NON-WILLFUL conduct, and the Service defines it verified
The Internal Revenue Service defines non-willful conduct for these procedures as CONDUCT THAT IS DUE TO NEGLIGENCE, INADVERTENCE, OR MISTAKE OR CONDUCT THAT IS THE RESULT OF A GOOD FAITH MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW. That is a definition, not a mood — it is asserted under penalty of perjury as part of the submission, and it is what the whole route stands on. Somebody who knew and chose not to file is outside it, and the procedures are not the right door for them.
If an examination has started, the door is already shut verified
The Service states that if it HAS INITIATED A CIVIL EXAMINATION of the taxpayer's returns for any taxable year — REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE EXAMINATION RELATES TO UNDISCLOSED FOREIGN FINANCIAL ASSETS — the taxpayer WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE to use the streamlined procedures. This is the timing rule that makes the whole question urgent rather than something to think about next year: eligibility is lost by an event outside the taxpayer's control, and it is lost for any examination, not merely a relevant one.
There are two tracks, and which one applies turns on where you live verified
The Service sets out separate eligibility for the STREAMLINED FOREIGN OFFSHORE procedures, for taxpayers residing outside the United States, and the STREAMLINED DOMESTIC OFFSHORE procedures, for those residing in it. The two are not interchangeable and they do not carry the same terms. Which one a person falls into is decided by a residency test set out in the Service's own instructions for each track — not by citizenship, and not by where the accounts are.
How many years, and what it costs, are not on this page verified
The number of years of returns and foreign-account reports each track requires, and the penalty each carries, are set out in the Service's separate instructions for the two tracks. They are not reproduced here because they were not read at source when this page was verified. That is a real limitation and it is stated rather than hidden: a page about coming back into compliance that guessed at a penalty would be the exact opposite of useful. Both figures are on the Service's own instruction pages, linked above, and both are worth reading before speaking to anybody who charges by the hour.
IRS — Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures (track instructions not read this session)primary sourceverified 2026-08-26
Two things are missing from this page and the omission is the point. The number
of years of returns and foreign-account reports each track requires, and the penalty each carries,
are set out in the Service’s separate instructions for the two tracks — those were not read at source
when this page was verified, and a page about avoiding a penalty that guessed at a penalty would be
the exact opposite of useful. Both are on the Service’s own instruction pages, linked in the rulebook
above, and both are worth reading before speaking to anybody who charges by the hour. Nothing here
assesses whether your conduct was non-willful: that is a legal characterisation, it is the
whole ball game, and it belongs to a tax attorney. Which accounts should have been reported in the
first place is at the FBAR / FATCA Alarm.
We already computed the public version — it is complete and stays free.
Keep the account list in one place before you talk to anybody: Join DesiSquare and the Square remembers your dates, re-runs this
when the rules change, and puts a credentialed human one message away.