THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
The Paris, France, based Association of Accidental Americans (AAA, www.americains-accidentels.fr) filed 23 complaints with European data protection authorities May 27, that challenge the legality of intergovernmental FATCA agreements (IGAs).
FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, is a US federal law passed in 2010 that requires all foreign financial institutions (FFIs) to report details of customers with connections to the United States, including records of birth or prior residency in the States, to the US Department of the Treasury. This can include ‘Accidental Americans’, people who have US citizenship by accident of birth - many of them have never lived there beyond childhood, worked or studied there and some have no US social security number. The AAA was formed by Fabien Lehagre in 2017 to protect their interests.
The complaints filed by AAA follows the decision made by the Belgian authority on May 24, 2023, which deemed transfers of personal data from Belgian accidental Americans to the US tax administration under FATCA rules as unlawful and prohibited. AAA believes that the data transfers mandated by FATCA agreements violate the privacy and fundamental rights of accidental Americans. Their complaints are designed to seek similar decisions from European data protection authorities.
AAA is also awaiting a decision from the European Commission on whether it will take France to the Court of justice of the EU for not halting FATCA induced personal data under the France-US IGA. A case is also pending before the French administrative supreme court, the Conseil d’Etat. AAA has also launched a case in the Netherlands and Luxembourg for a halt to such transfers and a judgement is expected soon in Luxembourg from the Administrative Tribunal.
