The devasting failure of the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970

The devasting failure of the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970



In 1970, the Bank Secrecy Act triggered FBAR filing requirements for accounts over $10,000. Yet.  Did inflation not happen? Let’s assume $10,000 was magical sum of money that should create a presumption of illegal activity. But you know, in these past 44 years, like a lot of stuff has totally happened. One thing that happened is that I my broke my ankle on the first day of summer vacation in 1985 (true story). But another more relevant (and perhaps less tragic) event was inflation. That $10,000 of 1970, is now, as of this writing, $61,348.20 according to the government’s own inflation calculator. So shouldn’t the reporting requirements account for inflation?