The US State Department notified the US District Court for the District of Columbia of its intention to reduce the fee for renouncing US citizenship on Friday 6 January. This will cost $450 instead of the $2,350 currently required.
The decision comes just days before the first hearing on Monday 9 January in the lawsuit brought by the Association des Américains Accidentels (AAA) representing people born in the US but with no connection to the country, and plaintiffs from some 13 different countries around the world. In December 2020, they had asked the US courts to rule, for the first time, that Americans have a fundamental right to expatriate and renounce their US citizenship under the US Constitution.
“This declaration is extremely encouraging”, said AAA President Fabien Lehagre in a statement on Saturday 7 January. “Time will tell how the government will formulate and develop the new fee and my organisation intends to continue to campaign against any fee or restriction on this sacred right of renunciation”, he added.
Indeed, 300,000 accidental Americans in Europe are subject to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) based on nationality (see EUROPE 13091/8). (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)