FBAR and FATCA on EPF, PPF and NPS: What H-1B Holders Actually Need to File

Assuming you are on an H-1B, you have been in the US long enough to be a US person for tax purposes under the Substantial Presence Test, and your Indian work history left you with three things still sitting in India: an EPF balance from your first job, a PPF account you opened in your second year of work, and an NPS Tier-I account you contributed to for a few years before leaving.

You stopped contributing the year you flew out. The balances are quietly compounding in rupees. There is a vague sense that "the US wants to know" about foreign accounts but you have never sat down with the actual forms. This is what the filing layer looks like in plain terms, with the parts that are settled separated from the parts that are not.

1. The two US filing tracks

There are two separate US reporting regimes for foreign accounts. They sound similar and people conflate them. They are not the same form, not the same agency, and not the same threshold.

Form              Agency      Threshold (single filer in US)         Where it goes
FinCEN 114 FBAR   Treasury    USD 10,000 aggregate, any day          BSA E-Filing system
Form 8938 FATCA   IRS         USD 50,000 end-of-year / 75,000 max    Attached to Form 1040

FBAR is a Bank Secrecy Act filing. It tests the aggregate maximum value of all your foreign financial accounts at any point in the calendar year against a flat ten-thousand-dollar bar. If the aggregate crossed that bar for even a single day, the year is reportable.

Form 8938 was added by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, enacted as Title V of the HIRE Act (Public Law 111-147, 2010), codified in Internal Revenue Code sections 1471-1474. Its thresholds vary by filing status and whether you live in or outside the US. For a single filer living in the US, it is fifty thousand dollars on the last day of the year or seventy-five thousand at any point during the year. The thresholds are higher for joint filers and for filers living abroad.

Some filers cross one threshold but not the other. Filers with larger Indian balances may trigger both, depending on filing status and where they live.

2. Where EPF, PPF, and NPS land — settled, contested, unsettled

The classification of each account differs. Treat them separately, not as one category.

EPF. The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation administers trust-held balances on behalf of members. The financial-interest test in 31 CFR 1010.350 is the stronger basis for inclusion: the balance is yours, accrues interest, and you can claim withdrawal under the scheme rules. EPF is the most commonly-reported of the three on FBAR by US-side preparers.

PPF. A government-administered savings scheme held at a designated bank or post office. There is no IRS or FinCEN ruling addressing PPF directly. Conservative preparers report PPF on FBAR and on Form 8938 on the reasoning that the account is held at a financial institution and the holder controls withdrawals within scheme rules. A minority view treats PPF as a government welfare program that may fall outside the reporting definition. Classification is not formally settled.

NPS. A defined-contribution pension scheme administered by the PFRDA, with pension fund managers holding the assets. The Form 8938 instructions reference an exclusion for certain foreign social-security or similar programs. Some preparers treat NPS Tier-I within that exclusion; others treat it as a reportable custodial/financial arrangement. Both positions have practitioner support. The conservative path is to report; the contrary position should not be taken without a written analysis from a qualified preparer.

The thumb rule, with the caveat above: when in doubt, conservative preparers tend to report once thresholds are met. There is no general filing obligation below threshold.

3. The US tax side (not the same question as reporting)

Reporting and taxation are independent. An account can be reportable and tax-neutral in the year, or non-reportable yet generate US-taxable income.

Account   India tax treatment                  US tax treatment (typical positions)
EPF       Largely exempt at qualifying exit    Inside-the-account interest may be taxable
PPF       EEE (Section 10(11))                 Interest often treated as taxable annually
NPS       Tax-favored, mixed exit taxation     Classification-dependent

India-side details on each are not uniform. EPF is largely exempt at qualifying exit subject to the conditions in the Fourth Schedule of the Income-tax Act, with post-2021 carve-outs for interest on excess employee contributions. PPF interest is exempt under Section 10(11) and maturity proceeds are exempt. NPS exit taxation is mixed — lump-sum and annuity components are treated differently. None of these India-side treatments bind a US tax authority.

If India tax was paid on the inside-the-account income, US foreign tax credit relief is available under Internal Revenue Code sections 901 and 904 via Form 1116. Where India tax is nil (as on PPF interest), there is no India tax to credit on the US side. This asymmetry is the trap most returnees miss: tax-free in India does not translate into tax-free in the US.

For Indian residents who later return and claim FTC on the India side for any US tax paid, that mechanism runs under DTAA Article 25, Section 90 of the Income-tax Act, Rule 128, and Form 67 — a separate workflow from the US-side credit.

4. Practical filing checklist

Ahead of filing season for each US tax year, the following is typically pulled together for each Indian account:

• Account number, branch / institution name, address
• Maximum balance in original currency (INR) during the calendar year
• Year-end balance in original currency
• Conversion to USD using the Treasury Reporting Rate of Exchange for December 31

FBAR is filed online at the BSA E-Filing System. The current due date is April 15, with an automatic extension to October 15. Form 8938 attaches to Form 1040 and follows the 1040 due date.

A few common traps:

• The FBAR threshold is aggregate maximum, not end-of-year. A single transient peak (an FD maturity rolling through a savings account before reinvestment) can push the year over even if the December balance is low.
• For FBAR, joint accounts and accounts where you have signature authority follow specific rules under 31 CFR 1010.350(e)-(f); Form 8938 uses its own valuation rules for jointly-held assets. They are not interchangeable.
• Closing an account mid-year does not exempt the year from filing; the maximum value during the year still controls.
• Indian tax-exempt status of the underlying income has no bearing on whether the account is reportable on FBAR or Form 8938.

To each on their own on aggressive classification positions for PPF and NPS. Some filers prefer the conservative reporting position because the penalty regime for missed required filings is significant relative to the cost of including an extra account on a form.

Sources:

• 31 USC 5321 (FBAR penalty statute): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/5321
• 31 CFR 1010.350 (FBAR reporting rules): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-31/subtitle-B/chapter-X/part-1010/subpart-C/section-1010.350
• FinCEN BSA E-Filing System (FinCEN Form 114): https://bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov/main.html
• IRS Form 8938 instructions: https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8938
• IRS comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/comparison-of-form-8938-and-fbar-requirements
• IRS Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/streamlined-filing-compliance-procedures
• Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange: https://fiscal.treasury.gov/reports-statements/treasury-reporting-rates-exchange/
• Bittner v. United States, 598 U.S. 85 (2023): https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/21-1195
• HIRE Act (Public Law 111-147), Title V (FATCA): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-111publ147/pdf/PLAW-111publ147.pdf
• Income-tax Act, 1961 (full text PDF, India Code): https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/2435/1/a1961-43.pdf
• EPFO official portal: https://www.epfindia.gov.in/
• PFRDA (NPS regulator) official portal: https://www.pfrda.org.in/