Does the Pope Pay Taxes? What H.R. 4501 Does Not Fix
The first anniversary of Pope Leo XIV’s election (May 8, 2026) has coincided with renewed legislative focus on the tax obligations of U.S. citizens residing abroad. Following U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s diplomatic visit to the Vatican on May 7, 2026, renewed attention has focused on the unique legal, diplomatic, and governance considerations surrounding Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost. As history’s first American Pope, his status serves as a high-profile case study of U.S. citizenship-based taxation. This has prompted the introduction of H.R. 4501, the Holy Sovereignty Protection Act, which aims to reconcile his unique sovereign role with his personal tax liabilities under the Internal Revenue Code.
In response, Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-CO) introduced H.R. 4501, the Holy Sovereignty Protection Act, on July 17, 2025. The bill is narrowly drafted to address two specific issues raised by the possibility of an American becoming Pope. It does not, however, address the part of U.S. tax law that arguably exposes the Pope to the most penalty risk: the FBAR. The question of whether the Pope pays U.S. taxes is more complicated than the headlines suggest, and H.R. 4501 only resolves part of it.
What the Bill Does
H.R. 4501 sits in two parts of the U.S. Code:
| Provision | Statute | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Citizenship preservation | Immigration and Nationality Act | A U.S. citizen elected Supreme Pontiff cannot have their U.S. citizenship revoked |
| Federal income tax exemption | Title 26 (Internal Revenue Code) | The Pope is exempt from federal income tax for any tax year during which he serves as Supreme Pontiff |
The first provision is more technical than dramatic. Under existing immigration law, accepting employment from a foreign government can, in theory, be a citizenship-relinquishing act, though the State Department applies the standard leniently and has not treated the Pope’s election as a relinquishment. H.R. 4501 closes any doubt.
The second provision does the bulk of the work. Without H.R. 4501, the answer to whether the Pope has to pay U.S. taxes would be a flat yes: he would be required to file a Form 1040 every year and report all worldwide income to the IRS, including any compensation, allowances, or benefits attached to the office. With the bill in place, Form 1040 falls away for the duration of the papacy. So does Form 8938 (FATCA reporting), which is filed as an attachment to Form 1040.
Does the Pope Have to File an FBAR?
Even with H.R. 4501’s income tax exemption, the Pope may still have to file an FBAR. FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is not part of the tax code. It lives in Title 31 of the U.S. Code, under the Bank Secrecy Act, and is administered by FinCEN, not the IRS. Because H.R. 4501 amends only Title 26, the FBAR regime remains in place.
FBAR applies to any U.S. person who has a financial interest in, or signature or other authority over, a foreign financial account if the aggregate value of all such accounts exceeds $10,000 USD at any point during the year. Whether the Pope personally qualifies is the contested question. Tax commentators are split. Tax Notes and others have argued that as the sovereign of Vatican City and head of the Holy See, the Pope has at a minimum signature authority over Vatican government accounts and the holdings of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (the Vatican Bank), which historically manages several billion euros in assets. Other commentators have read the Vatican Bank’s delegated governance (a Cardinals’ Commission and a Board of Superintendence that run day-to-day operations) as indicating that the Pope likely does not hold direct signature authority in the FBAR sense.
If the strong-form view is right, the Pope’s theoretical FBAR exposure is very large. Civil penalties for willful FBAR violations can reach the greater of $100,000 or 50% of the account balance per violation, per year, although recent rulings, including the Eleventh Circuit’s Schwarzbaum decision, have begun testing the constitutionality of those amounts under the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause. If the weaker-form view is right, the Pope may have no personal FBAR obligation at all. Either way, H.R. 4501 does nothing to resolve the question.
Form 3520, which governs reporting of foreign trusts and large foreign gifts, is also unaffected by the bill. It is filed independently of Form 1040 and would continue to apply if the underlying facts trigger it.
What the Bill’s Shape Tells Us
H.R. 4501 follows the pattern of every major U.S. expat tax reform proposal of the last decade: the fixes are written inside Title 26, and the FBAR is left alone. Rep. Darin LaHood’s Residence-Based Taxation for Americans Abroad Act (H.R. 10468), introduced December 18, 2024, would let qualifying nonresident U.S. citizens exclude foreign-source income from U.S. taxation entirely. It does not touch FBAR. President Trump has publicly supported ending double taxation of Americans abroad. FBAR has not been part of that conversation.
The reason is structural. FBAR was never primarily a tax instrument. It is a financial intelligence tool, originally enacted in 1970 and revived after 9/11 to track illicit money flows. Removing it from any expat’s regime, Pope or otherwise, would require amending the Bank Secrecy Act, not the Internal Revenue Code. No current legislative proposal addresses the FBAR side of the regime.
For now, H.R. 4501 sits in committee, the question of whether the Pope pays U.S. taxes remains technically half-answered, and the most famous American living abroad continues to embody a tax structure the rest of the world finds peculiar.
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The information in this article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal, or financial advice. U.S. tax law and FBAR rules are complex and depend on individual facts.
