This Is Post 4 in a series of posts describing the statutory and regulatory history of Mr. FBAR.
These posts are organized on the page “The Little Red FBAR Book“.*
.@InFBARWeTrust Take 2: The great question of our age is how to impose the equivalent a willful #FBAR penalty on a non-willful victim. Scenario 2 – Toth – The answer is to create willfulness out of thin air. Pretend that the non-willful person is willful https://t.co/hlt5GBijys
— John Richardson – lawyer for "U.S. persons" abroad (@ExpatriationLaw) September 8, 2022
Well, Ms. Toth is 82 years old – read this one and prepare to be absolutely revolted (seriously) … https://t.co/hlt5GBijys
— John Richardson – lawyer for "U.S. persons" abroad (@ExpatriationLaw) September 17, 2022
On August 26, 2022 Ms. Toth filed a PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI to the Supreme Court of The United States.
QUESTION PRESENTED
The Bank Secrecy Act and implementing regulations require U.S. persons to file an annual report — called an FBAR — if they have foreign bank accounts containing more than ten thousand dollars. The maximum civil penalty for willfully failing to file the report is either $100,000 or half the balance in the unreported account, whichever sum is greater. 31 U.S.C. § 5321(a)(5)(C)-(D). Using this formula, the government imposed on petitioner a civil penalty of $2,173,703.00.
The question presented is whether civil penalties imposed under 31 U.S.C. § 5321(a)(5)(C)-(D) — penalties that are avowedly deterrent and noncompensatory — are subject to the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause.
The petition describes the facts and procedural history as follows: