I'm wondering if someone may be able to answer my question as this is the first time for me to have foreign stocks. While I'll include my Swiss brokerage account on the FBAR filing, if I simply bought the stocks in 2011 and did not sell or receive any dividends/income from them, does this mean that there is nothing that I need to do on the tax return?

Usually you would include dividends on Schedule B Part II, and capital gains/losses on Schedule D. In my case, I simply have an account of stocks which made no income, so I guess it doesn't go anywhere on the US tax return. Is this correct?

Many thanks!

If you have not bought, sold, or obtained dividends, then there is no income and does not need to go on your tax return.

Thanks!
one less thing to worry about I supposed if I just let the stocks keep on sitting there

This is not true.

It depends on your stocks for one. Do you own foreign mutual funds? If you have non US mutual funds you have PFICs. These can be a big burden for US taxpayers.

Then there is the new Foreign Financial Asset Reporting for 2011 that may apply to you depending on values and filling status.

If you can provide more specifics I can tell you what implications there are.

I don't think there are any PFICs as it's just regular stocks of public companies, and the total value is less than the 200k reporting threshold for the Foreign Financial Asset Reporting. so am I good for not having to report?

The tax return (Form 1040 & its schedules) is not used for reporting assets, but only for reporting income. So, you are on safe ground; there is no place on the tax return where you should ever list your assets (stocks or otherwise). That's why the FBAR forms were created.

I'm sure you wouldn't buy a stock without knowing what the company does, so if you have no foreign mutual fund shares, there is no imputed income. As a (pedantic) footnote: it is correct that you should be careful about buying foreign (non-US) mutual funds, because you will have to report your imputed pro-rata income (just as you would with a US mutual fund), but the foreign fund may not provide you with the written statements you need.

If that is not clear, ask again; no harm in too many questions.