FBAR, 25+

There's one thing I've never quite understood about the FBAR.  I refer to Part I, question 14a which asks "Does the filer have a financial interest in 25 or more financial accounts?".

In my case, I have less that 25 accounts and hence I tick "No" and complete the details for each account in Parts II and/or III.  Simple.

But if I had 25 or more accounts and hence ticked "Yes", the form says do NOT complete Part II or III but retain records of this information.

What's special about 25 accounts?  Why does FinCEN require me to complete Parts II and III if i have LESS that 25 accounts, but NOT to complete those parts (but retain the records) if I have 25 or more accounts?  Is there a technical explanation, such as maybe their system is simply incapable of recording information for 25 or more accounts, and having 25+ accounts gets you a bye?  Or is having 25+ accounts some type of red flag that means FinCEN is going to look into your financial affairs more deeply by some other mechanism?

This was a simplification; FinCEN has recent (2015) legislation to change the rules any time they get round to it.

This was a simplification; that FinCEN has recent (2015) legislative to change any time they get round to it.

Thanks, that's helpful.  After reading your reply, I Googled around and found a few references to the 'simplified reporting' rules.  E.g. http://access.massbar.org/blogs/marc-lovell/2016/12/01/fbar-changes-on-the-horizon

It's interesting that in 2013, 56% of the total number of foreign accounts fell under the 25+ rule.  I can see why FinCEN might want to eliminate that rule in order to get reporting of all accounts.