Today Judge Ronald L. (“Ingenuity”) Buch gives us a history of the Swiss investment (bank) account, the Section 1296 Passive Foreign Investment Company maneuver, in Estate of Brett L. Clemons, Sr., Deceased, Brett Lee Clemons, Jr., Personal Representative, T.C. Memo. 2022-95, filed 9/14/22.

Brett Sr. decided to stash cash away from about-to-be-ex Mrs. Brett Sr., by parking same with UBS, who0 ran same through an investment account, which the Swiss managed to Brett Sr.’s complete satisfaction, which he acknowledged in writing to the Swiss, but never to IRS. When the Federales finally blew the doors off the Swiss stashery, Brett Sr tried the Swiss branch of a German bank, until finally an IRS subpoena pries from Brett Sr’s attorney enough info to nail Brett Sr for Section 6663 fraud chops on his deficiencies, plus add-ons for late filing.

Of course, under the current FBAR offshore show-and-tell regime, with massive chops for nondisclosure of foreign accounts, this sort of dodging has lost a lot of adherents.

As the old stock exchange ads used to say, this notice appears as a matter of record.