I am of two minds in posting these. On the one hand, I don’t want to contribute to “fear mongering”. On the other hand, the discussion in these two posts is of some interest. In the interests of NOT getting upset, I point out the facts in this case do NOT deal with Americans abroad. The judge interprets the FBAR rules to mean (see page 2 of the decision) that any person RESIDING IN THE UNITED STATES must file an FBAR. The decision also confirms the plain wording of the FBAR statute which says that no FBAR penalty will be imposed if there is “reasonable cause” and the balance in the offending account was properly reported. We are still left with the “fact specific interpretation” of what constitutes “reasonable cause”.
What I find interesting is that this is yet one more “octogenarian” who is having “Adventures with FBAR“. It’s as though by the time a Homelander reaches 80, he will have to deal with the state of his FBARs.
The following two tweets link to articles that provide “CondorSpeak” (perhaps a “sing along” to “Form People“) on issues surrounding our friend Mr. FBAR.
Are you frightened yet?
April 28, 2015 – 1 of 2
Court Approves FBAR Penalty | TaxConnections Worldwide Tax Blog http://t.co/w9He6IuvTW – 1 of 2
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) April 29, 2015
The opinion is interesting for many reasons, including its extensive discussion of the Administrative Procedure Act and the constitutional challenges Moore raised in opposition to the IRS’s assessing FBAR penalties. In addition, the opinion discusses the merits of Moore’s reasonable cause defense, a defense with considerable law in the context of civil tax penalties but not much law in the world of FBAR penalties.
April 29, 2015 – 2 of 2
Court Approves FBAR Penalty and Addresses Previously Unknown Issues! | TaxConnections Worldwide Tax Blog http://t.co/odyz4IP1bR
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) April 29, 2015
We had previously posted Court Approves FBAR Penalty and Raises Important Administrative and Constitutional Law Issues where we discussed that on April 1, 2015, in response to a summary judgment motion, in Moore v. U.S., (DC WA 04/01/2015) 115 AFTR 2d ¶2015-591 the district court for the western district of Washington reviewed the procedures and standards that apply to penalties for non-willful failure to file the FBAR.
The opinion was interesting for many reasons, including its extensive discussion of the Administrative Procedure Act and the constitutional challenges Moore raised in opposition to the IRS’s assessing FBAR penalties. Rubin on Tax details the decision and how it addresses some of the unknown and uncertain penalty issues relating to failure to file FBARs. These issues include:
