Syllabus

NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus

BITTNER v. UNITED STATES CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH 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 financial interests in foreign accounts to file an annual report known as an “FBAR”—the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. The statute imposes a maximum $10,000 penalty 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 submit- ted the required annual reports covering five years (2007 through 2011). The government deemed Bittner’s late-filed reports deficient because the reports did not address all accounts as to which Bittner had either signatory authority or a qualifying interest. Bittner filed 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 filings nor suggested that Bittner’s previous errors were willful. But because the government took the view that nonwillful penalties apply to each ac- count not accurately or timely reported, and because Bittner’s five late- filed annual reports collectively involved 272 accounts, the government calculated the penalty due at $2.72 million. Bittner challenged that penalty in court, arguing that the BSA authorizes a maximum penalty for nonwillful 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 file a compliant report accrues on a per-report, not a per-account, basis. Pp. 4–14, 16. 2 BITTNER v. UNITED STATES

Syllabus

(a) The Court begins with the terms of the most immediately rele- vant statutory provisions—31 U. S. C. §5314, which delineates an in- dividual’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 per- sons to “keep records, file reports, or keep records and file reports” when they “mak[e] a transaction or maintai[n] a relation” with a “for- eign financial agency.” The statute states that reports “shall contain” information about “the identity and address of participants in a trans- action or relationship,” “the legal capacity in which a participant is acting,” and “the identity of real parties in interest,” along with a “de- scription of the transaction.” Section 5314 does not speak of accounts or their number but rather the legal duty to file reports which must include various kinds of information about an individual’s foreign “transaction[s] or relationship[s].” Violation of §5314’s reporting obli- gation is binary: One files a report “in the way and to the extent the Secretary prescribes,” or one does not;