Page:Bittner v. United States.pdf/25

Rh says that “[e]ach United States person having a financial interest in … a bank, securities, or other financial account in a foreign country shall report such relationship to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue for each year in which such relationship exists and shall provide such information as shall be specified in a reporting form prescribed under 31 U. S. C. 5314 to be filed by such persons.” §1010.350(a) (emphasis added). The reporting form is known as an FBAR—a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. Ibid. A separate regulation establishes the deadline for reporting these relationships. “Reports required to be filed by §1010.350 shall be filed” by “June 30 of each calendar year with respect to foreign financial accounts exceeding $10,000 maintained during the previous calendar year.” §1010.306(c), as amended, 81 Fed. Reg. 76864 (2016). Put together, these provisions impose a substantive obligation to report interests in foreign bank accounts each year in which those interests exist. See §1010.420 (referring to “accounts required by §1010.350 to be reported to the” Government).

Notably, the regulations distinguish between the form used to report accounts and the reports themselves. See §1010.306(d) (the “[r]eports required by” §1010.350 “shall be filed on forms prescribed by the Secretary” (emphasis added)); §1010.306(e) (the “[f]orms to be used in making the reports required by” §1010.350 “may be obtained from” the Government (emphasis added)). This underscores that FBAR forms are not themselves the “reports” required by the statute; rather, they are the procedural mechanism used to implement the duty to report each foreign account. This distinction tracks §5314, which emphasizes a citizen’s duty to file “reports” but nowhere mentions FBARs—or, for that matter, forms of any sort. §5314(a). So far as §5314 is concerned, the Secretary could have chosen a different mechanism to implement the statute. For instance, rather than instructing citizens to report all accounts on a single