Supreme Court Slashes IRS Penalty Against Taxpayer for Not Reporting Foreign Bank Accounts

Neil Gorsuch during a hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington on March 22, 2017. MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

The Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in a fractured opinion on Feb. 28 that the IRS imposed an excessive fine on a businessman for failing to report foreign bank accounts, reducing the financial penalty to $50,000 from $2.72 million.

The decision came after the House of Representatives, now controlled by Republicans, voted in January to repeal a congressional provision allotting almost $80 billion to the IRS over the coming 10 years for increased enforcement.