A recent decision by the Israeli Supreme Court has cleared the way for FATCA implementation by lifting a temporary injunction on the disclosure of information to U.S. authorities under Israel's intergovernmental agreement (IGA). In connection with the decision, the Israeli government has agreed to give individual taxpayers at least thirty days to object to the inclusion of their information in data transferred to U.S. authorities under the IGA.
The government also agreed to delay the implementation of the IGA to September 30, 2016. Israeli financial institutions now have until September 20, 2016, to provide the Israeli Tax Authority with the required data on U.S. taxpayers. This is a notable development in Israel where, reportedly, as much as five percent of the population – upwards of 300,000 people – holds U.S. citizenship.
The decision arose from Republicans Overseas-Israel, et al. v. Israel, et al, where the plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of FATCA implementation under Israeli law, claiming that the IGA's required reporting to U.S. authorities violated Israel's sovereignty. Earlier in September, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction preventing the disclosure of financial information to U.S. authorities under the IGA. In its more recent decision, however, the Court rejected the challenge to Israeli sovereignty and analyzed the claim as an issue of privacy. The Court considered whether the privacy of U.S. taxpayers was being infringed and, if so, whether the harm was reasonable. It assumed that there was some infringement on privacy, but found that the privacy concerns were outweighed by the need for Israel to abide by its agreement to provide international financial cooperation, and that Plaintiffs failed to show that the State did not limit the impact on privacy as much as was possible.
For those U.S. persons with Israeli bank accounts who have yet to come into compliance with U.S. tax filings, there is little time remaining. The IRS has announced a series of voluntary disclosure programs and options, some of which can give rise to zero penalties.
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