FBAR penalties for non-willful violations are up to an inflation-adjusted amount per report per year (over 16,000 dollars in 2026), and for willful violations the greater of an inflation-adjusted amount (over 165,000 dollars) or 50 percent of the account balance, with criminal exposure in extreme cases.
After the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Bittner, non-willful penalties apply per FBAR, not per account. Willfulness includes reckless disregard, and courts have found it where taxpayers ignored the foreign account question on Schedule B.
Why it matters: the difference between the two tiers is often the difference between a manageable fix and a ruinous one.
Read more: FBAR filing and late FBARs.
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