» Tax News
How Long Does the IRS Have to Sue for FBAR Penalties?
March 11th, 2025
It can sometimes feel like an IRS audit or tax assessment can take forever, leaving taxpayers to wonder how long the IRS has to sue for FBAR penalties. A recent case coming out of the federal District Court in the Eastern District of New York shows t…
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Tax Court Says IRS Appeals Officers Not Subject to Presidential Appointments Clause
February 10th, 2025
Does the President of the United States have the exclusive power to appoint or remove IRS Appeals Officers? In a January 29, 2025, opinion which seemed to almost anticipate the new administration’s actions in other areas of the government, the Tax…
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Categories: Tax / IRS Penalties
Tax Court Says IRS Can’t Assess Penalties on Foreign Informational Returns, Again
January 9th, 2025
The Tax Court has paved the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether the IRS has the authority to assess penalties on informational returns disclosing interests in foreign corporations. Rejecting the DC Circuit’s reversal of an earlier d…
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Categories: Tax / IRS Penalties
Can You Request a Collection Due Process Hearing on FBAR Collections?
December 11th, 2024
The penalties imposed for failure to file a Foreign Bank Account Reporting form (FBAR) can be substantial. The IRS has many mechanisms to collect on those debts. If you have received a notice of collection efforts, can you request a collection due pr…
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Categories: FBAR
IRS Can Collect FBAR Penalties from Estate Distributees, Court Says
November 11th, 2024
They say that nothing is certain except death and taxes. A recent decision by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York says, between the two, taxes win. The judge granted the IRS authority to collect FBAR penalties from…
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Categories: FBAR
11th Circuit Rules Some (Not All) FBAR Penalties Unconstitutional
October 8th, 2024
Penalties for willful failure to file reports of foreign financial accounts – commonly called FBARs – are some of the highest civil penalties the government can impose. But until now, no court had been willing to say those fines were excessive. I…
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Categories: FBAR
Ninth Circuit Upholds Reckless FBAR Penalties Against Tax Preparer
September 6th, 2024
The Ninth Circuit – known as one of the most taxpayer friendly of the federal circuit courts – has joined many other courts in holding that reckless violations of the Bank Secrecy Act were sufficient to uphold willful FBAR penalties. The Court af…
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Categories: FBAR
FBAR Negligence or Willfulness? Court Says Jury Must Decide
August 7th, 2024
There have been a lot of cases in the last several years defining willfulness in the context of failures to file FBAR forms with the IRS. But a recent decision from the Northern District of California addresses the issue slightly differently. Instead…
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Categories: FBAR
Can an Employee’s Illness be a Reasonable Cause for a Delayed Business Tax Filing?
July 9th, 2024
Small businesses, and even large ones, depend on their top employees to do everything from interfacing with customers to filing company tax returns. When a key employee has a serious physical or mental illness at tax time, it can create problems for…
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Categories: Tax / IRS Penalties
D.C. Circuit Court Restores IRS’s Foreign Business Assessment Authority
June 6th, 2024
U.S. taxpayers with foreign business interests must disclose those interests to the IRS or face substantial penalties. But for the past year, the IRS’s foreign business assessment authority has been off-line. A 2023 Tax Court decision held that the…
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Categories: Tax / IRS Penalties
