On Feb. 28, a taxpayer prevailed in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) concerning the “Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts” (FBAR). Taxpayers who have foreign financial accounts worth over $10,000 in the previous year must report them on annual FBARs or face penalties. Lower courts have disagreed on how to apply the penalties (per bank account or per FBAR filed). One taxpayer was hit with FBAR penalties of $2.72 million by the U.S. government, which applied the penalty on each of the taxpayer’s multiple accounts. The SCOTUS ruled that the non-willful, failure-to-file penalty applied on a lower per-report basis, and not on a per-account basis. (Bittner v. U.S.)
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