Can the IRS Fine You Without a Jury? The Sagoo FBAR Showdown

September 24, 2025 - Participants include:

 

Virginia La Torre Jeker - @VLJeker

 

John Richardson - @ExpatriationLaw

 

The law of FBAR is found in Title 31 of the Bank Secrecy Act. Specifically 5314 is thought to define the FBAR obligation and 5321 prescribes civil penalties.

The actual requirements are found in Regulation 1010.350.

As a result of the recent IRS penchant for large penalty assessments, individuals have begun to explore the extent to which constitutional rights extend to FBAR penalties.

Two constitutional issues which have (and continue to be) been explored are:

1. The eighth amendment excessive fines clause; and

2. The seventh amendment right to a jury trial.

In September of 2025, a Texas court ruled in the Sagoo case that that the seventh amendment right to a jury trial extended to civil willful FBAR penalties. Whether the decision goes further is open to question.

On September 24, 2025, U.S. tax lawyer Virginia La Torre Jeker, published an insightful article in Forbes titled:

The Sagoo Case: FBAR's Reckoning In A Globalized World.

 

In today's podcast John Richardson and Virginia La Torre Jeker explore her article and what it could mean for future FBAR enforcement.

 

AI Generated description:

 

 

"Host John Richardson speaks with U.S. tax lawyer Virginia La Torre Jeker about United States v. Sagu (Sept. 19, 2025), a Texas district court fight over a $1 million FBAR penalty and whether taxpayers have a Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial for agency-imposed civil penalties.

The conversation explains willful versus non‑willful FBAR standards (including willful blindness), how the IRS assesses penalties, the implications of recent Supreme Court precedent, and what the decision could mean for taxpayers with international accounts."