Support the UK legal challenge against #FATCA. Indiscriminate #data transfers are unlawful. #AccidentalAmericans #AmericansAbroad #GDPR #DataBreach #HumanRights @Jesse_Norman @ft @UKParliament @Jude_KD @PreetKGillMP @DougChapmanSNP @guardian @SophieintVeld https://t.co/CoCw5SE6BW
— Jenny
The link in the above tweet links to a post describing this upcoming litigation. There is (along with the presumed upcoming ADCS appeal in Canada) growing pushback against FATCA.
Great to hear this news. Best wishes for success!
Some related links:
by the UK Legal Challenge organisers:
2019.09.06, What is FATCA and why should it matter to me
2019.09.06, Donations page
by the Mishcon de Reya law firm:
2019.09.10, https://www.mishcon.com/news/new-crowdfunding-campaign-challenges-risks-arising-from-fatca
Thank you Pacifica! I really appreciate your help in getting the word out.
@ Jenny
Isn’t this.a reprise of the Canadian lawsuit.?A questionof privacy.?Wait a bit til UK banks start closing accounts. Money talks, privacy walks.
Perhaps they will do it! UK is also a model 1 agreement as is Canada’s.
This would be potentially disastrous for all other model 1 countries should the UK Trial fail and they start closing / freezing accounts!
At that point, the international community as a whole needs to organize and step up!
Please Retweet/Like Jenny’s tweet (on Twitter)
PM @borisjohnson thought #FATCA was ‘outrageous’ when applied to himself but won’t stand up for other #accidentalAmericans or hold #HMRC to account for its disproportionate unsafe transfer of British people’s data to a foreign government. #GDPR #DataBreach
https://twitter.com/CrossBriton/status/1171888235104088065?s=20
Artice in The American ‘Britain’s #1 American Magazine’
https://www.theamerican.co.uk/pr/ne-FATCA-Legal-Case-Crowdfund-UK
GDPR. Something Canada doesn’t have.
Guardian picks up legal challenge.
HMRC faces legal fight for handing Britons’ data to US tax officials
@kalyeena Thu 12 Sep 2019 16.00 AEST
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/sep/12/hmrc-faces-legal-fight-for-handing-britons-data-to-us-tax-officials
Fabien Lehagre shared a post.
It is the latest fightback against the long arm of America’s tax authority. A challenge is also on the horizon from the French Association of Accidental Americans (AAA). The AAA’s president Fabien Lehagre said his group will file a formal complaint with the European Commission as early as October. It comes after the group lost an appeal in France in July.
“I hope the United Kingdom justice [system] will be more independent than the French courts this summer,”
https://www.facebook.com/Association.Americains.Accidentels/posts/1404761656341903
@Robert, it’s a question of individuals’ data rights. GDPR says that the transfer of data pertaining to an individual can only take place if it is necessary, proportionate, and limited to the stated purpose (for FATCA, the purpose is stopping tax evasion). Transferring the data of people who do not owe US tax in any way whatsoever is not proportionate, and does not fit within the stated purpose. It is excessive and puts our data at risk for no good reason and thus contravenes GDPR. There is a larger public awareness now of our data rights, and FATCA is a perfect example of an outdated law from a time when individuals’ data rights were not yet recognised or protected.
& if in the case where one is a UK citizen resident in England, then the FATCA data transfer is irrelevant to stopping tax evasion in the U.K.
Should this lawsuit succeed, would its value as a precedent-setting case for other Model 1 countries, especially in the EU, not be limited, undercut, or otherwise detrimentally impacted by the impending circumstances of whatever kind of Brexit takes place? I fear EU countries might discount any favorable decision if the UK leaves.
In my opinion, this type of lawsuit really needs to take place in Germany, the EU country with the most political/financial clout. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening as Germany is very cozy with the US, a NATO ally and host to 21 US military bases.
Whatever the outcome, from the perspective of being in the only Model 2 country in Europe, it’s most likely none of this will affect the data-sharing situation of dual/accidental/other Americans here.
BREAKING: Lawsuit in UK to challenge legality of British gov’t’s data-sharing under FATCA
September 12, 2019
By Helen Burggraf
https://americanexpatfinance.com/tax/item/255-lawsuit-in-uk-to-challenge-legality-of-british-gov-t-s-data-sharing-under-fatca
Please contribute and ask others to do so. If every 8 million USA diaspora gave $5….
Jenny: Congratulations on starting this legal action in the UK! Your initiative gives us all hope for a new chance at receiving justice. Thank you!!!!
@Jenny
Certainly wish you the best of luck.
Shouldn’t there be some sort of legal meeting of minds of those seeking legal action and those who have gone through the process unsuccessfully to formulate an approach that might succeed , even though the cases are in different jurisdictions with different laws.A sort of concerted effort.
Would like to add that with the existing pre and then post Brexit ,the UK will become even morė dependent on the US . Not very encouraging as far as the lawsuit is concerned.
If it goes the way of the Canadian case, and picturing Lady Justice holding the two-pan balance., she will put your data rights on one pan and US financial threats on the other pan. You don’t have to guess which pan will weigh more and which way justice will swing.
PLEASE DONATE.
DON’T HESITATE.
If Jenny wins her suit against HMRC, and she has a hell of a lawyer Filippo Noseda, this will mean that Europe wins.
And, after a European win, Canada, Australia, New Zealand will follow suit…
The European Union legislation is the most advanced in terms of Data Protection. A new law called the GDPR.
It is our best bet wherever we live.
Remember:
Max Schrems, a 26 year old Austrian student won against Facebook and the US. It was a decision of the European Court of Justice and those guys are the only ones in the world who seem to be hell bent on keeping the US at bay.
As it stands, contributing to JENNY’S SUIT IS THE BEST GAME IN TOWN
Cheers to our Canadian friends and thank you,
Financial Times Article !
British citizen in UK court challenge to US tax evasion regime
Caroline Binham in London 8 hours ago
https://www.ft.com/content/e59ff84c-d56a-11e9-a0bd-ab8ec6435630
In the comment section:
Macbond6 hours ago
“She may have been better advised to challenge it under the DPA 2018 Part 3, Chapter 5 International transfer rules…”
???
Sounds like UK version of GDPR ?
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/12/part/3/chapter/5
(3)Condition 2 is that the transferring controller has determined that there are no fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject concerned that override the public interest necessitating the transfer.
“public interest.” I might say that public interest is not upheld as:
1) No assistance to preventing UK tax evasion as the FATCA IGA provides zero benefit of CRS style account reporting from the U.S., and any data received is not reciprocal.
2) One article stated that the cost of FATCA is equivalent to 500 pounds per person in the U.K., this is not in the public interest as the agreement is not reciprocal and thus no benefit from UK account information in the U.S.
3) The U.S. double taxation and U.S. over-regulation of persons on U.K. soil is not in the U.K. public interest as this is beyond U.K. people paying a fair share of tax to the U.K., and the extra compliance on a sub group of U.K. persons is of no benefit to the U.K. and is detrimental to those impacted. The claim that certain U.K. resident citizens are also residents of the U.S. for tax purposes is not justified as the U.S. provides zero in the way of resident services to them in exchange.
4) in regards to the “public interest” to act in accordance with the FATCA IGA entered, the U.S. has not kept its end of the bargain by not enacting laws requiring its financial institutions to ask all account holders if they are U.K. citizens or U.K. residents.
@Muzzled, @Frenchie, @JC, @Robert – Thank you so much!! Your support means a lot to me, especially knowing how long you have all been active in the cause.
@Robert – absolutely, the Canadian and French judgements are very important to consider in this case. Many people have worked hard for years and years in this battle and none of the results of their efforts are being neglected.
@Jane and @Petlover, thank you too! I hope that even more expats and accidentals across Europe will be empowered to demand an end to the violations of their individual data rights.
https://www.mishcon.com/news/new-crowdfunding-campaign-challenges-risks-arising-from-fatca
Pledged £50. Thanks for this Jenny, I applaud your courage and tenacity in fighting this nonsense!
@Fred, thank you so much!!!
Yesterday’s goal of 100 pledges was exceeded! Today’s goal is to reach 140 pledges. Thank you for supporting this challenge and sharing the link to the page! https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/fatcahmrcprivacybreach/
Thank you so much Jenny. I wish I was as brave as you! I have contributed, but not as much as I would have liked, as I just had to pay the $2350 last week! The whole nightmare literally made me ill, but the ‘Brockers’ are literally who saved me and gave me much needed courage. Thank you to you, and to them, and wishing you every bit of luck going!