Canadian Challenge To FATCA

On August 4 and 5, 2015, the FC heard oral arguments in a lawsuit—commenced on August 11, 2014 by two Canada-US citizens—that challenges the law implementing the Canada- US intergovernmental agreement (IGA) relating to FATCA (Virginia Hillis et al. v. The Attorney General of Canada et al., court file no. T-1736-14). I attended the hearing. Surprisingly, the court said that it would rule on the plaintiffs' motion by September 30, 2015, which is the deadline for the first transfer of information from Canada to the United States under the IGA. The FC decision may profoundly affect FATCA's application and Canada's ability to implement the OECD's common reporting standard for the automatic exchange of information. The FC decision on the substantive issues will mark the first time that a court in an IGA-partner jurisdiction has decided the domestic legality of an IGA's implementing legislation: the 115 IGA-partner jurisdictions await both the FC decision and the US