FATCA forces banks all over the world to report their US Person account holders to the IRS either directly or indirectly through their local tax agency. As reported on this website, Australia is sending information on over 800,000 accounts to the IRS. This data transfer has been shown in a report to the European Parliament to violate GDPR in the EU. In the UK Jenny has decided to fight back. But, I’ll let Jenny tell you about it in her own words. Here’s the email she just sent out announcing the crowd-funding of her legal challenge:
Dear Karen,
I have some exciting news. For the past several months I have been working with the London law firm Mishcon de Reya to organise a challenge to HMRC’s indiscriminate, disproportionate reporting of British citizens’ private data to a foreign government under FATCA. The details are at https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/fatcahmrcprivacybreach/.
FATCA is a domestic US law that was adopted into UK law in 2012 with no assessment by the UK government of its effects on individual rights, particularly those of ‘accidental Americans’, and it has since had a detrimental impact on me and thousands of other British citizens, as well as costing the UK economy millions (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/tax/11050777/British-families-billed-500-to-prevent-Americans-dodging-tax.html). HMRC refuses to report to the public or Parliament what FATCA is achieving (https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-taken/decision-notices/2019/2614446/fs50751683.pdf). A policy that makes the people transparent to the government whilst keeping the government hidden from the people is unacceptable in the UK. Indiscriminate, disproportionate transfers of personal data also contravene the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect last year and require transfers to be limited to the stated purpose. British citizens resident in Britain, working and banking locally and earning an average UK wage, do not owe US tax. Therefore there is no reason to transfer their data outside Britain. However, HMRC continues to do so, and refuses to offer individuals any details on this, or right of reply, or opportunity to check or correct their own data.
In the UK, justice in a complex case like this is often closed to average-wage people like me, because of the requirement to pay court costs. However, Crowd Justice are working with me and my firm to facilitate crowd funding for this challenge. I would be grateful if you might consider a donation to this cause, which is crucial to protect individuals from indiscriminate transfers of sensitive information through unsafe chains highly vulnerable to data hacking and identity theft. Any donation, large or small, will be vastly appreciated, as will your efforts in spreading the word about this cause.
As you will see on the Crowd Justice site, none of this money goes to me. It all goes directly into supporting the legal work for this cause.
If you have any questions about the cause or about me, please do not hesitate to get in touch by email reply.
Thank you so much for your commitment to justice for ordinary citizens like me.
Kind regards
Jenny