As so-called "accidental Americans" in Belgium are waiting for clarity about whether their data can legally be shared with the US tax authorities, a new tool enables individuals to request the erasure of their data held in the country.
An American tax-evasion measure – called the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) – is under review by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), to see whether it complies with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The case was referred by a Belgian court in late 2025.
"The GDPR grants concrete rights to individuals," Fabien Lehagre, President of the Association of Accidental Americans (AAA), told The Brussels Times.
"When a supervisory authority identifies violations and sets a compliance deadline, those affected should not hesitate to exercise their rights," he said. "FATCA cannot operate outside the framework of EU law."
What is the issue?
Under the FATCA anti-tax evasion measure, financial institutions all over the world must transmit the financial account data of all their customers identified as US citizens to the country's authorities.
This includes the data of "accidental Americans" – those who acquired American nationality because they were born in the United States but have no other ties to the country. However, as the US tax system is based on citizenship rather than residency, they must still pay American taxes.
Belgium was among the countries that previously signed an intergovernmental agreement with the United States to implement the FATCA.
In practice, this meant that Belgian tax authorities essentially acted as an intermediary for relaying the information from banks to the US tax authority. As a result, Belgium was breaching its own laws to comply with US law.
Credit: Belga/ Eric Lalmand
The current procedure at the CJEU follows Decision No. 79/2025 of 24 April 2025, which was issued by the Belgian Data Protection Authority (DPA). They identified several GDPR violations in Belgium’s implementation of FATCA.
The DPA's decision included compliance orders, notably concerning data transfers to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), with a one-year deadline from the date of notification of the decision.
As this deadline approaches, individuals whose data is collected and transferred under FATCA – including these so-called "accidental Americans" – have the right, in accordance with Article 17 of the GDPR, to request the erasure of their data where they consider that its processing is not compliant with EU law.
Assert fundamental rights
Now, the Association of Accidental Americans (AAA) created an online tool. Those affected by FATCA can use it to generate a ready-to-print and sign letter to be sent to the Belgian Finance Ministry.
"While the matter is pending before the CJEU and a formal compliance deadline has been imposed by the Belgian data protection authority (DPA), affected individuals now have a concrete opportunity to assert their fundamental rights," they said.
The tool is available in French and Dutch. Users can enter their details into an online form, which will generate their request for data deletion in Word format. At the time of writing, the tool was used to generate 27 letters.
