HIRE Act & the FBAR

I remember hearing on the radio news about the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act of 2010 (or HIRE Act.)  I thought it was about giving the Treasury extra powers to try to prevent assets being hidden abroad by US People.

However, I've now read elsewhere on the web that folks who have more than $50,000 in a foreign bank account may have extra reporting requirements; over and above the basic Treasury Form TD F 90-22.1 that we all know & love, and have figured out how to fill out without too much time taken out of our lives.

Does anyone know what these extra reporting requirements will be?

I believe Guya put a post on another thread ("Exchange rates for back taxes") about the automatic $10,000 penalty on failure to file information returns. I'm not aware of anything regarding increased reporting by the individual taxpayer.

My concern on HIRE has to do with the financial institutions requirements to file all the necessary paperwork for accounts defined as "US person accounts".  The wording on the "Expanded Affiliated Groups" that constitute a single foreign institution is also interesting. If it becomes too onerous on the institutions, it may be more commercially advantageous for them to close all accounts over $50,000. But so far, I've read nothing regards this concern relating to the HIRE Act. If anyone is aware of potential problems, perhaps they could let us know.

Yes, I think I raised a false alarm, sorry about that.

Having poked around further on the web, it appears that the HIRE Act imposes some additional reporting requirements on the financial institution, but not on the individual account holder, just as theOAP says.

My reading of the HIRE Act is that it has many individual provisions such as PFIC reporting from 18 March 2010 and reporting of foreign financial assets from January 1...there are many others.

Many thanks for the information Guya.

After a much more thourough reading of ALL of Title V, and not just Part I, it certainly appears this may affect more than just a few individuals. FBAR plus "Super" FBAR. Relating solely to Foreign Financial Assets, am I correct in thinking that the "Super" FBAR will be part of 2010 Form 1040 reporting?

Some of the HIRE Act law is indeed effective from St Patrick's Day.  There is no IRS or Treasury guidance as yet on these tax provisions or those in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act so it is impossible yet to say what all this new law means in practice.