Unfortunately I still find articles from willful FBAR ambulance chasers with hyperbolic threats..... my Wall Of Shame list is still getting bigger

update 09/30/2014 : after my protest the company took down the article from Brian Mahany and replaced it with "How FATCA May Impact Your Foreign Banking (And What to Do!)" by David McKeegan.

This weeks mention goes to Brian Mahany from http://www.mahanyertl.com which is a small but well known FBAR ambulance chaser law firm out of Milwaukee,WI.
Find the article in question under :
http://www.greenbacktaxservices.com/blog/3-letters-no-one-wants/
I left the below comment to be moderated on their web site but as you can imagine it was never released since we have a "little" conflict of interest  in play here. Mahany uses Greenback Expat Tax Services for his clients FBAR filings  !
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With reference to Brian Mahany`s  incorrect statement : "The penalties for noncompliance can be as high as the greater of $100,000 or 50% of the highest historical balance for each unreported account".................
Sorry but your guest poster who is supposedly a "specialist" in offshore tax reporting is unfortunately misinformed with regards to *highest* and *historical* outside of plea agreements.
1. The Statue of limitations for the civil FBAR assessments is 6 years and 5 years for criminal, there is no mention of anything relating to *historical*.
2. The statute is clear that the penalty is based on "the balance in the account at the time of the violation." The violation occurs on at the moment 6/30 turns into 7/1, which is the moment of failing to file the FBAR timely and NOT the highest historical balance.
Here is the statute - 31 USC 5321(c)(5)(C) & (D).
http://www.law.cornell.edu/usc...
(C) Willful violations.— In the case of any person willfully violating, or willfully causing any violation of, any provision of section 5314—
(i) the maximum penalty under subparagraph (B)(i) shall be increased to the greater of—
(I) $100,000, or
(II) 50 percent of the amount determined under subparagraph (D), and
(ii) subparagraph (B)(ii) shall not apply.
(D) Amount.— The amount determined under this subparagraph is—
* * * * or
(ii) in the case of a violation involving a failure to report the existence of an account or any identifying information required to be provided with respect to an account, the balance in the account at the time of the violation.
Now, the offshore penalty inside the OVDP and only in OVDP is based on the high amount for the 8 year disclosure period. But that penalty is an IRS miscellaneous penalty imposed / agreed to by the taxpayer in lieu of all other penalties and has nothing to do with the greater of $100,000 or 50% of the highest historical balance for each unreported account either.
Please Brian write something about what the IRS is realistically going to do especially when you address expats, green card holders and foreign-born Americans who have in the majority of the cases reasonable cause for their non willful behavior and not what hypothetically the IRS can and maybe will do......in less than 1 % of the cases.
Please Brian when you use this hyperbolic language about certain IRS threats keep in mind that even in the egregious case of Mr. Zwerner , DOJ TAX had to settle in the end for 2X wilful FBAR penalty and not the 4X they were waving at him from the beginning , never mind the hypothetical 6X per the Statue. I need to emphasize that 99% of the cases involving expats, green card holders and foreign-born Americans are NOT egregious.
Zwerner.......... U.S. Civil Suit for 4 Years of Willful Penalty of 50% Per Year : https://docs.google.com/file/d...