Overview
On September 26, 2022, Law360 quoted Larry Hill in a piece titled "Gov't May Struggle To Justify FBAR Calculations At High Court." The piece discusses the US government's inconsistent administration of the penalty calculation for nonwillful FBAR violations. The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on November 2 on whether the violations should be calculated per account or per year
Hill said in relation to the penalties: "The per-account approach [a $10,000 penalty per account as opposed to per form] also creates disparity depending on how foreign assets may be structured… There could be situations under the current interpretation where a taxpayer faces a nonwillful FBAR violation for failing to disclose one account with a $10 million balance that amounts to a $10,000 penalty, and the same amount of money or less spread across 20 accounts could generate a $200,000 penalty… That's sort of an extreme result that doesn't make sense and really could not be what Congress intended."
