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Foreign Bank Account Reporting (FBAR) has emerged recently as a litigation matter in several federal courts. While past cases primarily focused on the determination of willful versus nonwillful FBAR violations, recent cases bring to light issues that should lead Congress to revisit requirements and legislation specifically related to penalties. This paper examines four specific topics recently discussed in the courts: the assessment of penalties per FBAR form or per account; Eighth Amendment challenges; payment of penalties by an estate; and repatriation of assets to pay penalties. We address what the recent FBAR litigation tells us about compliance, enforcement, and policy and encourage Congress to revisit and make changes to the law.

IRC § 501(c)(3) grants federal tax exemption to nonprofit organizations, such as public charities, private foundations, and private operating foundations. Religious organizations classified as churches receive added preferential treatment, specifically, exemption from certain filing requirements and statutory audit protection through § 7611. Section 527 grants most political organizations tax-exempt status, although they are subject to tax on some income, are not exempt from filing requirements, and do not receive tax-deductible donations. This extreme disparity in treatment may incentivize political organizations to reconfigure their missions and organizational structures to meet the litmus test for classification as a church. After the awarding of church status to some seemingly politically charged organizations, we investigate this issue and propose that it is time for the U.S. Congress and the Internal Revenue Service to revisit, evaluate, and revamp the existing system to prevent political organizations from abusing the tax provisions intended to benefit churches.

Casino gambling has greatly expanded in the United States since 1988. This paper considers the public interest implications of this change, including increased social costs and state revenues from casinos that can help address these costs. We describe casino growth, including the role of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) in casino development. After reviewing the research associated with casino social costs and state revenues, we select a number of states, concentrating in the northeastern United States, and describe the state revenues from casinos along with the funding that is provided for problem gambling prevention and treatment programs. We find a lack of consistency in the state casino tax rates, resulting revenues, and support for problem gambling prevention and treatment programs. Since billions of dollars of revenues are potentially at stake, state leaders should consider employing a strategy to capitalize on these revenues, given the increasingly prevalent social costs associated with casinos and the need to support problem gambling prevention and treatment programs.

While critical thinking is necessary for accountants in today’s business world, cultivating students’ critical thinking skills in an accounting classroom can be a challenge. The extant literature suggests that debate is a well-established pedagogical tool for enhancing student critical thinking skills, yet debate is not often used effectively in accounting classrooms. We provide suggestions for developing debates for use in the accounting classroom and two examples of debates used by the authors. The first requires students to argue for or against the extension of tax provisions currently being deliberated by Congress. The second requires students to examine the provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley and propose amendments to the bill.