CCH Quotes Mark Matthews on Government's Power to Compel Records of Foreign Bank Accounts

Mark E. Matthews discusses the required records exception to the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.   Mr. Matthews, who represents U.S. taxpayers in tax controversy disputes with the IRS, DOJ, and other government agencies, maintains that the exception is incorrect and should not apply.  For more on the story, please visit CCH's website.
 
Excerpt taken from the article.
 
Mark Matthews, member, Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered, Washington, D.C., picked up the argument for the defense. He noted that the impact of the exception is that taxpayers are 99-percent convicted from their own records—Foreign Bank Account Records (FBARs). He said the FBAR regime is not a real industry. The exception is a criminal trap, Matthews argued, contrasting FBARs with currency transaction records (CTRs), which involve a real industry, like check-cashing.
 
Matthews said that many courts presume that foreign bank accounts are a heavily regulated industry; some justices however, have signaled that they would reconsider the exception.