Orwellian doublespeak in FBAR deadline

Hi all, long time, no see.

Due to basically having lost my mind to stress, I completely forgot the deadline for the FBAR had changed back to April a few years ago. I'm going to file over the weekend, so they'll get it when they get it, but can anyone make sense of the weird deadlines that aren't deadlines? (Eg, it's due 15 April... unless you don't in which case it's due 15 October. Which to me reads: it's due 15 October. Based on some reading around, it looks like the deadline is automatically whatever tax deadline you have - so that you only have to apply to extend the tax deadline, not both. But this is not at all clear from the instructions, which even Orwell wouldn't have dreamt up...)

Whatever the deadline, this is one of the easiest forms to complete, and has no bearing on tax you owe/pay. Way easier to file by April 15th, and go on about your business.

I worked as a consultant for 30 years, and frequently had to interpret various state and federal rules that pertained to work I was doing. Yes, bureaucratic language is frequently confusing, and sometime contradictory. But, if you don't read too much into it, the bulk makes sense.

Thanks, Vadio - but of course, I had reasons I didn't do it in advance of the usual deadline (namely that I was still under the impression it was in July, even though I did it last year in advance of the new deadline and planned my time accordingly. It's been a rough few months and everything non-essential is waiting for summer break). In any case, my question still stands: what's the *real* deadline? If it's really October (which is the simplest way of reading this), why say April? Is October so that people who didn't realise it and file last-minute have some time without having penalties (presumably because late ones involve more work for those processing the forms?). Why create confusion with something that is (easy to do if time consuming but) often very stressful?

I'm asking because a) I get annoyed with phraseology and grammatical constructions so conflicting as this (3 degrees in lit will do that to you), and b) I'm genuinely curious as to the reasoning here.