Rand Paul is set to become the first key presidential candidate to sue the government he hopes to lead, which is a major boost for the campaign to repeal FATCA (the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act).

The Kentucky based- senator is taking legal action against the Treasury and IRS on the renunciation of his right to vote on over 100 tax treaties with other governments.

As a public and vocal critic of FATCA I am in full support of Rand Paul’s lawsuit, which claims that Obama’s administration failed to consult the U.S. Senate about such treaties, or ‘intergovernmental agreements’, as part of the highly contentious Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA. 

The suit contends that the Obama administration managed to circumvent Senate approval by calling the treaties ‘intergovernmental agreements’.

FATCA affects millions of American expatriates living and working around the world, as their private financial information is shared by foreign banks and financial institutions with the IRS.

One of the foremost devastating consequences of this toxic legislation is that a large number of the now estimated 8.7 million American expats across the globe are reluctantly renouncing their citizenship in a desperate measure to escape FATCA’s clutches.

President Obama originally pushed for FATCA to be rolled out as a means of catching tax evaders living outside the U.S., but many feel as though they are being persecuted by the IRS and the Treasury when they have done nothing wrong.

According to Rand Paul’s superlawyer, Jim Bopp, “FATCA passed Congress right after Obama was elected, when the Democrats had majorities in both houses.  The issue is inescapably partisan for that reason and for the fact that no Republican [in the U.S. House] supported the passage of FATCA.”

Mr Paul, along with six others, says that the ‘Republicans Overseas Action’ organisation is due to file the lawsuit on Monday in Ohio.  Other issues include a violation of the Fourth Amendment as individuals are forced to surrender personal details, as well as the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments; here referring to inexplicably high penalties for late filings.

As a direct result of FATCA, American expats are being rejected from banks in their adopted countries, as they are deemed more trouble than they’re worth.  Banks will be slapped with a 30 per cent fine if they fail to cooperate with the U.S. Treasury’s demands, therefore they don’t wish to be burdened with FATCA’s onerous red tape, and are refusing Americans as clients.

The Republican National Committee and newly formed Republican Overseas Action organisation are working on getting as many American expats as possible to register in the swing states that will decide the presidency in a close call election.

According to long-term activist on the Republican National Committee, Solomon Yue: “The best way to defend 8.7 million overseas Americans’ right to privacy and constitutional protections is to cripple the IRS, FATCA and enforcement tools through legal action on constitutional grounds all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

I couldn’t agree more.

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