Foreign Nationals & Expats

SCOTUS Denies Cert in FBAR Excessive Penalty Case

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a Ninth Circuit decision imposing a $1.1 million FBAR penalty on a taxpayer.  The Internal Revenue Service assessed the penalty after finding the taxpayer failed to report assets exceeding $1 million in a Swiss bank account.

The taxpayer argued the amount of the assessment violated the Eighth Amendment protection against excessive fines and said the IRS improperly obtained nontax information, such as the existence of the foreign account, through the Swiss-U.S. tax treaty.

Below are details from the appellate history in United States v. Bussell.

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