FBAR In The Homeland: The Willful FBAR Penalty Requires Proof

 

Published by Tax Connections Blog 21 Jun 2017 Posted in FBAR
Written by John Richardson
 

This is one more in a series of posts discussing the FBAR rules. The FBAR rules were born in 1970, laid virtually dormant until the 2000s and then were then unleashed in their full “ferocity” on U.S. persons.

Mr. FBAR has not visited Canada, but he has visited Canadian citizens
 

Readers of this blog (particularly those in Canada) may recall that I have previously written about the adventure of Mr. Jeffrey P. Pomerantz, currently of Vancouver, Canada, with Mr. FBAR. At that point—March 2017—it was clear that the U.S. Department of Justice planned to sue Mr. Pomerantz to collect the FBAR penalties to which it felt entitled. It is worth noting that FBAR penalties are assessed under the Bank Secrecy Act (Title 31 of U.S. laws) which is different from the Internal Revenue Code (Title 26 of U.S. laws.) In order to collect FBAR penalties, the U.S. Government must sue, and sue it did. The purpose of this post is to tell the story of what happened when the U.S. Government sued Mr. Pomerantz in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

But, before we begin our story, this post is more about “Civil Procedure” than it is about Mr. FBAR……………here