NEWS

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul sued the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service over rules on how Americans abroad are taxed and what foreign banks must disclose about U.S. customers.

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is supposed to make it harder to hide assets overseas, yet its regulations are unconstitutional and violate privacy rights of U.S. citizens, Paul said in the complaint. The suit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Dayton, Ohio, also seeks to strike down requirements for Americans to file reports on foreign accounts over $10,000.

The tax act, or Fatca, “imposes enormous economic costs on individuals and financial institutions,” according to the suit by the U.S. senator from Kentucky and six others. It makes millions of Americans living abroad report accounts above $50,000 with their annual tax returns. Fatca also requires foreign banks to report any account held by a U.S. taxpayers.

“On the most fundamental level, Fatca deprives individuals of the right to the privacy of their financial affairs,” according to the complaint. “On a practical level, Fatca is severely impinging on the ability of U.S. citizens to live and work abroad.”