James George Jatras details the complete absence of legal authorization for FATCA Intergovernmental Agreements in a new opinion piece for Forbes, as well as on his own blog site, repealfatca.com. As willfully ignorant countries around the world line-up to needlessly sign-away their sovereignty and privacy rights, it is important to remember that all FATCA IGA’s are mere pseudo-treaties, built on a legal foundation of quicksand. Only Congress has the constitutional authority to enact international treaties, not the executive branch – not Treasury, not the IRS and certainly not Obama, no matter how many executive orders he may sign with a Louis XIV-like flourish.
‘Unauthorized FATCA “Intergovernmental Agreements” Are Part of Obama’s Executive Overreach’
Remember FATCA forum? Allison Christians had it right back in December 2012 when she asked something like “What are the IGA’s… are they treaties, competent authority agreements, executive agreements etc…”
For those of you that have joined IBS since 2012, you might be interested in the FATCA forum videos, here is Prof Christians talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R__KgHq0vRE
And back in the Homeland it seems that Obama is being accused of overstepping his executive authority in implementing Obamacare, and I have also heard that his treatment of the sudden influx of unaccompanied minors on the southern border.
Congress has just agreed that Obama can be sued about overstepping his executive authority: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-clears-way-for-lawsuit-against-obama/2014/07/30/7436aca6-1809-11e4-9349-84d4a85be981_story.html
So aren’t the IGA’s the same sort of overstepping of presidential authority where the Senate is supposed to approve treaties, not the president?? In Switzerland, the IGA is apparently being treated as a treaty, although it is not.
And on the general “the US is a nasty place” note, how about more cruel and unusual punishment, the US is the only CBT country, besides Eritrea and the only modern western nation that practices capital punishment: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/02/justice/arizona-execution-controversy/index.html?hpt=hp_t3 somebody is even suggesting return to the electric chair since nobody wants to sell execution drugs to states anymore: http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20140801/WIRE/140809969?Title=Ala-lawmaker-supports-return-to-electric-chair-
! Comment from Samuel Clemmons: To give you an idea of how narcissistic FATCA is, any person in any country (let’s say a Russian citizen in Russia at a Russian bank) is required to sign a USA IRS form in English which states that he is not a US person, under penalty of perjury according to US law and US punishments. True?
https://www.nordea.se/om+nordea/om+nordea/d%C3%A4rf%C3%B6r+st%C3%A4ller+vi+fr%C3%A5gor+till+dig/1690432.html
Like here for Swedish Nordea, links to W-8 BEN (stating that one is not a US person)
@Jefferson D. Tomas
Re “So aren’t the IGA’s the same sort of overstepping of presidential authority where the Senate is supposed to approve treaties, not the president??” Yup, you betcha.
But for better or worse the House resolution authorizing the lawsuit was limited to Obamacare (and really, only part of that law). And keep in mind, even if they had given thought to including other issues – and I have no reason to think they did – FATCA would not be on their list. There are a hundred other (well-funded) issues far more visible and important to them. But they didn’t make it in either.