The EU Council is currently working to enhance legal certainty concerning the application of data protection requirements in the context of agreements between Member States and third countries on the automatic exchange of tax information, Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice, stated in a written reply to Sophie in ‘t Veld MEP (Renew Europe, Dutch) on Monday 11 March.
She had asked about the status of the EU Council’s discussions, which began in March 2023, on the automatic exchange of tax information with third countries and its interaction with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
More specifically, she asked whether the Commission considers that Article 49 of the GDPR applies to these exchanges of information, insofar as it concerns mass data transfer.
This question relates in particular to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which aims to combat tax evasion. It creates daily problems for people who have American nationality because they were born in the United States but have no connection with the country. These people are represented by the Association of Accidental Americans (AAA) (see EUROPE 13107/22).
For Fabien Lehagre, President of AAA, contacted by Agence Europe on Monday 18 March, this answer is an admission by the European Commission. “This makes its inaction all the more incomprehensible in view of the complaint we lodged nearly five years ago, which is still being examined”, he added.
He considered that if Member States infringe the GDPR, it is the Commission’s responsibility to initiate infringement proceedings against them. In December, the Brussels Court of Appeal overturned the Belgian Data Protection Authority’s decision to prohibit the transfer of tax data to the United States (see EUROPE 13319/18).
This subject will be discussed at the next meeting of the EU Council’s High Level Working Party on Tax Questions on Tuesday 26 March.
Read the answer: https://aeur.eu/f/be0 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)