The Paris-based Association of Accidental Americans (AAA), along with 20 so-called accidental Americans of 10 different nationalities, have filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington against the U.S. State Department today, in which they allege that the US$2,350 fee the U.S. currently charges those wishing to renounce their American citizenship violates the U.S. Constitution and international law.

The founder and president of the Paris-based Association des Américains Accidentels (Accidental Americans Association, or AAA) has formally requested that the U.S. Ambassador to France see to the "re-open the renunciation services and the FBU (Federal Benefits Unit)" in France.

The Paris-based Association des Américains Accidentels (Accidental Americans Association, or AAA) has launched a crowd-funded campaign to finance a legal challenge to what it says is the "exorbitant" US$2,350 fee that the U.S. charges those wishing to renounce their U.S. citizenship.

The Paris-based Accidental Americans Association today filed another lawsuit – its second in a little more than a year – in a Paris court, alleging that the way France's banks are complying with the U.S. tax law known as FATCA is causing them to be discriminated against by making it difficult if not impossible for them to maintain a French bank account.

Europe's estimated 300,000 so-called 'accidental Americans' were dealt a fresh blow yesterday, in the form of a statement by a top EU official who said the European Commission had found "no evidence of the existence of an infringement" on the rights of such 'accidentals', as EU citizens, to have "a basic bank account".

Accidental Americans and other Americans resident overseas have been reacting to a top U.S. Treasury official's response to a European Union official's concerns over certain aspects of the American tax evasion-prevention law known as FATCA. 

The U.S. Treasury this week revealed that it had met last Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington with representatives from a number of EU organizations, including the European Commission, European Banking Authority and the European Securities and Markets Authority, "to exchange views on financial regulatory developments". It said the meetings had taken place as part of ongoing regulatory discussions between the Treasury and the EU entities.

A number of European citizens who have been struggling for years with legacy American citizenship issues, as a result of the 2010 U.S. law known as FATCA, expressed their frustration with Europe's executive level of government – among others – during a two-and-a-half-hour European Parliament hearing on FATCA in Brussels yesterday. 

The Paris-based Accidental Americans Association today filed a complaint with the European Commission against the way France is using an inter-governmental agreement with the U.S. to enforce the so-called Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which, the AAA says, is in breach of European Union law.

For the past four years, U.S. born, France-resident and French-speaking Fabien Lehagre has been fighting a tireless and increasingly hard-to-miss battle on behalf of all of France's and Europe's "accidental Americans"...