FBAR Timeline: 'How we got here'

Back in the 1960s, before Richard Nixon became U.S. president (in 1969), few "ordinary" Americans who lived abroad gave much, if any, thought to filing U.S. tax returns, let alone Foreign Bank Account Reports. Nor did the U.S. government seem much interested in finding out whether such expats might have overseas bank accounts, unless these expats were known to be wealthy.

  • News

FBAR experts: SCOTUS Bittner decision could see shift towards more ‘willful’ charges, greater 'rule of lenity' awareness

(...or possibly not...)


Regular watchers of the way U.S. officials have been prosecuting American taxpayers whom they deemed to have committed "non-willful" breaches of the government's so-called FBAR regulations didn't have to be asked twice for their thoughts on Tuesday's landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that – at long last – finally established how penalties for such breaches are to be determined. 

  • News

BREAKING: European Court of Justice rules against Spain's 'FBAR'...

...citing disproportionate penalties, pan-EU capital movement infringement 

Europe's top court has ruled against Spain's Modelo 720 "foreign asset law", declaring that its disproportionate penalties and potentially restrictive effects on the free movement of capital and payments across EU borders were violations of European regulations. 

  • News

U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear FBAR case

Foreign Bank Account Report-watchers have long wondered when an FBAR case would finally reach the Supreme Court, and in so doing, at last begin settling questions having to do with the scope of FBAR penalties, which can be draconian.

But as Monday's Supreme Court announcement denying Alice Kimble the writ of certiorari that she had petitioned for back in June showed, the wait for the great, long-awaited FBAR showdown is set to run a little longer than some might have hoped it  would...

  • News

IRS: 'Cryptocurrency accounts to be included in FBAR reports'

The last few weeks have seen the price of Bitcoin soar, accompanied by a roar of commentary from those who see it, and other cryptocurrencies, as the future.  

This latest round of Bitcoin mania was kicked off earlier this month, when (Bitcoin fan) Elon Musk's car company, Tesla, announced in an SEC filing that it had bought US$1.5bn worth of the cryptocurrency, and that it would also begin accepting Bitcoin in payment for its products... 

  • Tax
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Opinion

Ross McGill: ‘FATCA isn’t the problem: CBT is’ 

Ross McGill: ‘FATCA isn’t the problem: CBT is’ 

In the early years of this century, a number of major media exposés reported how Homeland Americans, as well as rich people from other developed and developing countries, were making...

Mar-18-2023