EU Petitions Committee members: U.S. needs to make changes to the way it applies FATCA to EU 'accidental Americans'

January 23, 2023
By staff writer
News

Above, a photo taken from an S&D Group Tweet, which shows last July's PETI delegation: left to right, Marc Angel, of Luxembourg; Kosma Zlotowski, Poland; Yana Toom, Estonia; Ulrike Müller,Germany; Alexander Bernhuber, Austria; Mario Furore, Italy; and Cristina Maestre, Spain

The U.S. must make some significant changes to the way it applies regulations set out under its 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act to those dual U.S./EU citizens known as "accidental Americans," according to a report just released by seven EU Petitions Committee members who conducted a five-day "fact-finding mission" in Washington, DC last July.

The 19-page report, which is dated Jan. 17 and which may be viewed by clicking here, ends with a list of eleven recommendations "made to the competent [EU] authorities," which include that EU citizens who are "subject to FATCA reporting" obligations be allowed "to use simplified reporting, or to be entirely exempted from it" in the event that they have "bone fide long-term residence in the EU."

Other recommendations include "ensur[ing] that [those dual EU] /U.S. citizens who have never worked in the U.S. and have not had residence as adults in the U.S...be exempted from FATCA reporting entirely" and "ensur[ing] the enforcement of the Payment Accounts Directive (2014/92/EU) under which all residents in the EU have the right to a payment [bank] account with basic features".

They also call on the European Union to "establish an EU-U.S. working group on FATCA compliance" and to "ensure that the relevant EU provisions regarding safeguards of data are respected in cases in which they apply.

The report concludes with a recommendation that the four FATCA-related petitions that served as the basis for last year's fact-finding visit to Washington, which were filed in 2016, 2020 and 2021, "remain open" and that, "pending developments, decisions will be made at a later stage about how to further proceed" with them.

Summary account of meetings

Fifteen of the 19 pages that comprise the PETI representatives' report are detailed summaries of what was discussed at each of the meetings that took place.

During their five days in Washington, the PETI delegates managed to meet with, among others, Doug O'Donnell, Deputy Commissioner of Services and Enforcement; Rep. Lloyd Doggett, whose various roles included being chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's subcommittee on Health, and membership of the House and Senate joint committee on Taxation[; José Murillo, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs in the Office of Tax Policy; Rep. Eric Swalwell; Elise Bean, former staff director and chief counsel, the U.S. Senate Permanent Submittee on Investigations (and an outspoken advocate, in the past, of FATCA); and a group of Congressional staffers.

As reported, the trip to Washington by the seven EU Parliamentarians from the body's Petitions Committee was described at the time as a response to a growing number of petitions "relating to the effects of FATCA on EU citizens, especially those with dual EU-U.S. nationality," such as these individuals "[inability] to access some financial services, and alleged infringement of EU rights and exemptions from some consumer protection legislation."