FATCA - what it is, why it needs to be repealed and what you can do

From Republicans Overseas Hong Kong

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act ("FATCA") currently threatens 7.6 million Americans living outside the United States with violations of their 4th amendment privacy rights and 8th amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

Rather than truly capturing "fat cats hiding money offshore", the vast majority of those affected by FATCA will simply be ordinary middle-income Americans living and working overseas who will simply face increasing difficulty and expense in complying with the additional laws and paperwork, keeping their bank accounts open, and trying to avoid excessive penalties for forgetting to file something.

To many Americans within the United States, FATCA may seem like a far off and far away issue, but we are committed to stopping it now before other governments try and respond with a GATCA (Global Accounts Tax Compliance Act) arrangement where the accounts of 300 million Americans onshore could also be subject to reporting to foreign governments. It is bad enough that an American teacher in a far off, undemocratic country has to trust that country's government to securely send their private financial details to the IRS, but what will Americans do before information on their accounts at home must be shared with these foreign governments.