Volume 598 U. S. Part 1 Pages 85–114

OFFICIAL REPORTS OF

THE SUPREME COURT February 28, 2023

Page Proof Pending Publication

REBECCA A. WOMELDORF reporter of decisions

NOTICE: This preliminary print is subject to formal revision before the bound volume is published. Users are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C. 20543, pio@supremecourt.gov, of any typographical or other formal errors. OCTOBER TERM, 2022 85

Syllabus

BITTNER v. UNITED STATES certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the fth circuit No. 21–1195. Argued November 2, 2022—Decided February 28, 2023 The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and its implementing regulations require U. S. persons with certain fnancial interests in foreign accounts to fle an annual report known as an “FBAR”—the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. The statute imposes a maximum $10,000 pen- alty for nonwillful violations of the law. These reports are designed to help the government trace funds that may be used for illicit purposes and identify unreported income that may be subject to taxation. Peti- tioner Alexandru Bittner—a dual citizen of Romania and the United States—learned of his BSA reporting obligations after he returned to the United States from Romania in 2011, and he subsequently submitted the required annual reports covering fve years (2007 through 2011). The government deemed Bittner's late-fled reports defcient because the reports did not address all accounts as to which Bittner had either Page Proof Pending Publication signatory authority or a qualifying interest. Bittner fled corrected FBARs providing information for each of his accounts—61 accounts in 2007, 51 in 2008, 53 in 2009 and 2010, and 54 in 2011. The government neither contested the accuracy of Bittner's new flings nor suggested that Bittner's previous errors were willful. But because the govern- ment took the view that nonwillful penalties apply to each account not accurately or timely reported, and because Bittner's fve late-fled an- nual reports collectively involved 272 accounts, the government calcu- lated the penalty due at $2.72 million. Bittner challenged that penalty in court, arguing that the BSA authorizes a maximum penalty for non- willful violations of $10,000 per report, not $10,000 per account. The Fifth Circuit upheld the government's assessment. Held: The BSA's $10,000 maximum penalty for the nonwillful failure to fle a compliant report accrues on a per-report, not a per-account, basis. Pp. 92–101, 103–104. (a) The Court begins with the terms of the most immediately relevant statutory provisions—31 U. S. C. § 5314, which delineates an individual's legal duties under the BSA, and § 5321, which outlines the penalties that follow for failing to discharge those duties. Section 5314 provides that the Secretary of the Treasury “shall” require certain persons to “keep records, fle reports, or keep records and fle reports” when they “mak[e] a transaction or maintai[n] a relation” with a “foreign fnancial agency.” 86 BITTNER v. UNITED STATES

Syllabus

The statute states that reports “shall contain” information about “the identity and address of participants in a transaction or relationship,” “the legal capacity in which a participant is acting,” and “the identity of real parties in interest,” along with a “description of the transaction.” Section 5314 does not speak of accounts or their number but rather the legal duty to fle reports which must include various kinds of informa- tion about an individual's foreign “transaction[s]