Why does the IRS make me report foreign accounts even when I owe no extra tax?

The reporting exists for transparency, not revenue. After offshore-evasion scandals, Congress built a system — the FBAR under the Bank Secrecy Act and FATCA's Form 8938 — to make hidden offshore money visible, so the IRS can match what you disclose against what foreign banks now report directly under FATCA agreements. That cross-check is why honest taxpayers still have to file: the government can't tell a forgotten family account from concealment without the form. For ordinary immigrants this feels like heavy paperwork for accounts you've always declared at home, and that's a fair frustration — but the penalties for skipping the forms are far larger than the effort to file them. The practical mindset is to treat foreign-account reporting as routine annual hygiene, like a tax return, rather than a sign you've done something wrong. Keep a running list of every foreign account so each year's filing is quick.