Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Monthly Archives: July 2023

Stop Extraterritorial American Taxation (SEAT) Encourages Submissions to US House Ways and Means Committee — Deadline, Wednesday, 2 August!

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On 19 July 2023 the Ways & Means Tax Subcommittee held a hearing entitled “Biden’s Global Tax Surrender Harms American Workers and Our Economy.” Stop Extraterritorial American Taxation (SEAT) notes that this hearing presents an opportunity to give the House Committee on Ways & Means your feedback on both (1) specifically, the hypocrisy of their position regarding unfair taxes, and/or (2) more generally, the impact of nationality-based U.S. extraterritorial tax policies on the lives of Americans who live outside of the United States.

Send to: WMSubmission@mail.house.gov.

SEAT notes that submission guidelines are at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ADVISORY_Tax-Subcommittee-July-19-2023.pdf and points out the following:

Please ATTACH your submission as a Microsoft Word document.

All submissions and supplementary materials must be submitted in a single document via email, provided in Word format and must not exceed a total of 10 pages. Please indicate the title of the hearing as the subject line in your submission. […] The name, […] address, [and] telephone numbers of [the person making the submission] must be included in the body of the email. Please exclude any personal identifiable information in the attached submission.

SEAT has submitted a statement to the Committee and encourages you to provide your own personal statement.

SEAT’s post on “Have Your Say to House Ways and Means Committee About Unfair Taxes Aimed at Americans”

July 13, 2023: Supreme Court of Canada Rejects Leave to Appeal Application for Canadian FATCA IGA Legislation Lawsuit

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On August 11, 2014 Plaintiffs Ginny Hillis and Gwen Deegan filed a Claim in Federal Court of Canada arguing that the U.S. FATCA law imposed on Canada violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms of Canadians.  We lost in Federal Court and later in the Federal Court of Appeal. 

On January 10, 2023 our Appellant, Gwen, filed a “leave to appeal” request in the Supreme Court of Canada asking the Court to accept her application to hear the appeal.  In argument Gwen asked Court to consider both Charter sections 8 and 1.  Section 8 protects against “unreasonable” searches or seizures and section 1 protects rights and freedoms subject to reasonable limits. 

Today, on July 13, 2023 the Supreme Court of Canada decided not to hear the appeal, thus exhausting our last opportunity to appeal in the Canadian courts.     

Given the Supreme Court decision, the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty (ADCS) has decided to abandon its efforts to end the Canadian legislation enabling the U.S. FATCA law — and will dissolve our non-profit corporation. 

The ADCS Board thanks many for past support which made this lawsuit possible: the brave plaintiffs and appellants Gwen, Ginny, and Kazia, the Isaac Brock Society, and the hundreds of people who, since 2014, contributed financially and in other cases their encouragement that this legal challenge was necessary.

Thank you all for your support,

Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty

Update on Belgian FACTA IGA Litigation

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Fabien Lehagre of l’Association des Américains accidentels has provided an update on the Belgian FATCA IGA case, which includes:

“The Belgian State has appealed the Belgian data protection authority (DPA) decision ordering the prohibition for the Belgian tax authority to process personal data of accidental Americans in the context of FATCA and to transfer the data to the IRS, the US tax authority. An introductory hearing took place at the Brussels Court of appeal yesterday [29 June 2023]. The Court of appeal decided to suspend the effects of the Belgian DPA decision.  . . . ”

Fabien notes that, “this prohibition . . . is now suspended by the Brussels Court of Appeal [pending the appeal decision].  The main reasons for doing so are to avoid the risk of damaging Belgium’s international reputation towards the United States and the diplomatic relationship with the United States as well as the difficulties for FIs who can no longer meet their FATCA obligations.”

Key Dates:

24 May 2023.  Decision.  Press Release. “The Belgian Data protection authority today declared unlawful, and decided to prohibit, the transfers of personal data of Belgian ‘Accidental Americans’ by the Belgian Federal Public Service Finance (FPS Finance) to the US tax authorities under the intergovernmental FATCA agreement.”

30 Jun 2023 From Fabien’s Update. “The Belgian financial institutions (FI) must, in principle, transfer FATCA relevant data to the Belgian tax authority for the fiscal year 2022. As the Belgian DPA prohibited the Belgian tax authority to process these data, this also means that the FIs cannot transfer the data to the Belgian tax authority as reception of these data by the latter also constitutes a form of prohibited processing.”

30 Sep 2023. “Belgian tax authority is supposed to transfer the data to the IRS.”

15 Nov 2023.  “Pleadings on the merits are scheduled for 15 November 2023.”