Two New FBAR Opinions -- Nothing New Here (6/27/19)

I report two unremarkable FBAR willful civil penalty cases.  I don't provide links, but provide the court and docket numbers for those wanting to go to Pacer to get the cases.

In United States v. Schoenfeld, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105906 (M.D. Fla. No. 3:16-cv-1248-J-34PDB 6/25/2019), an FBAR collection case, the Court denied the defendant's motion for summary judgment holding (Slip Op. pp. 20-21):

In short, none of Defendant's arguments persuade the Court that in failing to update the BSA implementing regulations after Congress's amendment to the statute in 2004, the Secretary intended to prohibit the IRS from being able to use its discretion and impose the maximum penalty allowed by the statute, "particularly given the IRS's clear statements to the contrary." Garrity, 2019 WL 1004584, at *4. Indeed, in its 2008 version of the Internal Revenue Manual (IRM), the IRS specifically recognized the conflict between the statute and the regulation, and stated that although "the regulations at 31 C.F.R. § [1010.820] have not been revised to reflect the change in the willfulness penalty ceiling . . . the statute is self-executing and the new penalty ceilings apply." See IRM § 4.26.16.4.5.1 (July 1, 2008), available at 2008 WL 5900930. Similarly, the current version of the IRM provides that "[f]or violations occurring after October 22, 2004, the statutory ceiling is the greater of $100,000 or 50% of the balance in the account at the time of the violation." See IRM § 4.26.16.4.5.1 (Nov. 6, 2015), available at 2007 WL 9418679. Although the IRM does not "have the force of law," it does provide "persuasive authority" suggesting that the Secretary did not intend to limit the willful FBAR violation penalty to $100,000. See Griswold v. United States, 59 F. 3d 1571, 1576 (11th Cir. 1995) ("While the IRS Manual does not have the force of law, . . . the manual provisions do constitute persuasive authority as to the IRS's interpretation of the statute and the regulations."); see also Romano-Murphy v. C.I.R., 816 F.3d 707, 719 (11th Cir. 2016) (same). Thus, for all of the reasons explained above, the Court declines to reduce the penalty assessed against Steven Schoenfeld for an alleged willful FBAR violation to $100,000.

I previously reported on an earlier opinion in Schoenfeld.  Court Holds That Liability for FBAR Civil Willful Penalty Survives Death (9/26/18), here.

In United States v. Dadurian, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104683 (S.D. Fla. 9:18-cv-81276 6/24/2019), also an FBAR collection suit, the Court denied the defendant's motion for summary judgment, noting the differing definitions of willful for the FBAR civil penalty (i.e., intent to violate a known legal duty, knowing and reckless) but found that under any of these definitions the facts were sufficiently contested to reject summary judgment.  The facts that are recounted by the court do not look good for the defendant, but the court was only dealing with defendant's motion for summary judgment.