Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 29 Comments

Thanks to Shadow Raider for posting this comment on the generalTax/FATCA thread.

“Now that the tax part of the fiscal cliff is over, the Ways and Means committee is highlighting tax reform in its website again, specifically its international aspects. Chairman Dave Camp is also talking about it again. The debate is still focused on corporations, but the discussion draft does say “individual tax reforms to be provided”. There is an email for comments about international tax reform:wmtaxreform@mail.house.gov. I sent my comments last year, I’m thinking about sending my bill draft now, and maybe more of us should send comments too.”

And thanks to Mark Twain for pointing it out as deserving of visibility and discussion on it’s own thread, indicating that,  “This  is a unique chance to engage Ways and Means, which I have not seen previously as an opportunity.”

29 thoughts on “Ways and Means Committee Highlighting International Aspects of Tax Reform”

  3. For those that remain Citizens and hope for legislative effect, I can’t find anything more important than this Ways and Means site for comments.

  4. “Now that we have prevented a Democrat tax increase, the Ways and Means Committee will lead the effort to reform our tax code to make it simpler and fairer for families and small businesses, while also making American businesses and workers more competitive in the global marketplace.”

    Note the “AND WORKERS”

     

    Dave Camp – press release January 1, 2013
     http://waysandmeans.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=316027

    Could this possibly mean the end of citizenship based taxation for individuals?

  5. *Could this possibly mean the end of citizenship based taxation for individuals?

    No, unfortunately  not. Too many Brockers are dreaming in technicolor.  There has not  been and will not be any movement toward residence based taxation for individuals. The movement you are referring to is an effort to repatriate zillions in cash sitting offshore in the accounts of giant corporations such as Apple, Starbucks, McDonalds etc. They keep their profits offshore because if they bring them home (to distribute as dividends for example ) , there would be double taxation. This cash will stay offshore until there is a change in the CORPORATE tax regime. The reference to workers is in the hope that if CORPORATIONS can bring cash back, they will hire a few more Americans. It’s interesting that some of these companies are so profitable that they could easily afford to repatriate the profits.

  6. *
    this is not the way I’m reading this: “if CORPORATIONS can bring cash back, they will hire a few more Americans”. This implies hiring more americans IN THE US. However Dave Camp seems to be referring to the GLOBAL marketplace. I take this to mean Americans abroad?
    That said, agreed, it’s not gonna happen tomorrow, especially the way Congress gets things (not) done. But…….

  7. nothing will happen for US Citizens abroad without massive input

    THere is absolutely nothing planned in this unless it becomes planned in

    You know, I have seen 10’s of pages of blog comments on various articles in minor blogs-

    Just consider the ways and means committe as a very interesting blogsite

  8. @all- well after giving it much thought I decided to make a submission even though I didn’t see the point since I have my CLN. I ended up doing for the sake of my disabled son. I did make sure to preface my rmarks by clearly stating that I was NOT trying to regain my U.S. citizenship but that I was just doing this for my son.

  11. @Duke of Devon- that is the kind of assessment that they should have been using all along. Unfortunately government doesn’t care about yield or marginal rate of return for a certain level of expenditure, which is the only way to determine whether or not a given activity is worth the effort. Why should they when it isn’t their money that is being used?
    The whole IRS effort is too unfocused. If you can’t narrow your goals that is when you end up with scatter shot approach. No business could survive with that kind of business plan.
    Now if only they could see the light and realize how FATCA is going to cost more in enforcement to the world financial system and the U.S. economy then it will ever yield in tax revenue to the U.S. purse.

  12. The argument about having Money offshore is ludicrous.  As the US has the highest Corporate tax rate (even after those well-talked about exclusions) in the entire World.  As such, every single investment outside of the US is regarded as an offshore tax haven—it is the Depardieux effect.

    The Money that sits overseas is there because the Corporations cannot afford to patriate it into the highest (Corporate) taxed Company in the World. 

    The best propoganda is propoganda that spreads itself, such as “Ex Patriots”, “Global Elites”, and “Tax Evaders”.  It worked in the 1930’s and early 1940’s and it is working now.

  14. Thanks for providing a very useful link for real action—regardless of your current affiliation.  I sent a comment via email.

  17. Go to the source?
    Main Office:Ways and Means Committee Office
    1102 Longworth House Office Building
    Washington D.C. 20515
    P: 202-225-3625
    F: 202-225-2610

  19. @Mark Twain

    That link comes up blank for me.  It is a long walk from NZ to the Main office, but will submit a comment, but the link is not coming up.

  22. I have it on my to-do list to write to my Rep and to the Ways and means about doing Everything Nina Olsen recommends, except what is needed for US Citizens abroad.

    This whole thing is so Orwellian—–and now I see that it has been such for 50 years.  It is so ridiculous that the people who will be most affected by it don’t even give it a thought.

  24. I received this definitive response:

    Senator Enzi’s Legislative Assistant for tax in the D.C. office provided the following:

    The repeal of FATCA as well as rules that tax U.S. citizens that reside outside of the United States are long-term initiatives. We would be happy to keep you informed if progress is made on those two fronts.The odds of repealing the FATCA legislation in the foreseeable future are slim, particularly given that Sen. Enzi’s party is in the minority in the Senate and does not control the White House. I see that my best option is now to apply for asylum to either Brazil, Russia, or China.

  25. The tax reform working groups of the Ways and Means Committee are discussing tax reform at full speed now, with hearings almost every day (nothing on international aspects yet, other than a hearing about trade with India). The committee announced that it is accepting formal comments from the public until April 15, and that those comments will be included in the final report by the Joint Committee on Taxation on May 6. The committee is even posting the comments on its website as they are sent (the only comment sent to the international group so far is about corporations). If many of us send comments about citizenship-based taxation, FATCA, FBAR etc., the subject should catch their attention.

    Instructions:
    Any person(s) and/or organization(s) wishing to submit comments can email tax.reform@mail.house.gov.
    In the subject line of the email, please indicate “Comments: (name of) Tax Reform Working Group” (in our case, International Tax Reform Working Group).
    Attach your submission as a Word document.
    In addition to the Word document attachment, please include in the body of the email a contact name, physical address, phone number and email address.

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