Tax Impacts

On December 23, 2021, the United States (“U.S.”) Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) announced amendments to the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) penalty regulations to remove certain civil penalty language (previously, 31 C.F.R. § 1010.820(g)), despite FinCEN’s previous failure to modify the regulations after the enactment of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (“American Jobs Creation Act”), Pub. L. No. 108-357, § 821, 118 Stat. 1418 (2004).

On November 30, 2021, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in U.S. v. Bittner, __ F.4th __ (5th Cir. Nov. 30, 2021), held that penalties for non-willful failures to report foreign bank accounts apply to each unreported bank account as opposed to each report not filed, as held by other courts.