Watch Out for Clients with Online Gambling Accounts

A tax court case (Hom (DC CA 6/4/2014)) held that an online gambler was required to file an FBAR for online gaming accounts with out-of-the-country online casinos. He was fined for not making an FBAR reporting of his online accounts and the tax court sided with the government.  The Appeals Court (9th Cir), however, found that only some of the accounts were foreign financial accounts that would require FBARs. (J.C. Hom, CA-9, 2016-2).