Belgium Rules Sharing Americans’ Bank Data Violates Privacy Law

A Belgian agency ruled that the government’s sharing of Americans’ financial information with the IRS under a US law violates European data protection laws.

The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, requires reporting of foreign bank account information to the US agency.

The Belgian Data Protection Authority issued the ruling Thursday, saying sharing of this data in accordance with FATCA violated provisions in the EU General Data Protection Regulation, and it gave the Belgian government one year to bring its data-sharing into conformity with the GDPR.

• The authority initially blocked the sharing of data in 2023, in a case brought by the Accidental Americans Association of Belgium. A Brussels Market Court reversed the decision and sent it back to the authority later that year.
• The Association of Accidental Americans President Fabien Lehagre said his group welcomes the decision, which he said will stop the data transfers, but he decried the decision to give the government a year to comply. “Accidental Americans” are people who hold US citizenship by virtue of their birth but are established overseas.
• “Data protection cannot accommodate a political or administrative timetable,” he said. “Transfers must cease immediately.”