Many of you have reasonably given up on the political process in any country as a means to change bad laws — and many would also have difficulty in agreeing with all of the positions of some members of the U.S. Republican party.
—But today the Republican National Committee voted unanimously a resolution to support Residence-Based Taxation.
This is a good beginning.
We now have a major political party in the United States aiming to kill both FATCA and citizenship-based taxation. Will the other party support these good resolutions?
From the RO Facebook site:
Resolution Supporting “Residence Based Taxation”
WHEREAS, Residence-Based Taxation, (RBT), is a fair, equitable, and efficient taxation of American Citizens living overseas because it taxes their worldwide income only once in the country where they actually reside and receive government services;
WHEREAS, RBT would not only align U.S. law with the other industrialized countries, but also eliminate complex requirements and tax forms, such as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR); and, it would significantly reduce IRS administrative expenses;
WHEREAS, The United States is the only industrialized country in the world that taxes foreign-source income of its citizens living overseas by Citizenship-Based Taxation (CBT), resulting in double taxation; all other industrialized countries only tax foreign-source income of their citizens residing in their home country (Residence-Based Taxation or RBT);
WHEREAS, The complexity of a U.S. tax return for an American living overseas and the significant additional penalties applicable to
Americans living overseas requires these U.S. Citizens to hire expensive tax preparers; the cost of this double-taxation along with the costs of preparation and compliance put American job seekers at a competitive disadvantage to other non-American workers, thus costing American jobs;WHEREAS, The higher cost to hire American workers resulting from CBT causes multinational corporations, even those headquartered in America, to hire fewer Americans, to have less of a connection to America and purchase fewer American goods and services, thus decreasing American exports;
WHEREAS, The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), implemented as a result of CBT, has caused banks, both U.S. and foreign, to deny access to banking and other financial services to the 7.6 million Americans overseas, thus denying employment and investment opportunities and forcing them to choose between U.S. citizenship and their livelihood;
WHEREAS, The implementation of FATCA to enforce CBT promotes the abandonment of the U.S. Dollar as the global reserve currency and hurts the U.S. economy; and
WHEREAS, History reveals that replacing Citizenship-Based Taxation with Residence-Based Taxation will raise net Federal tax revenue because of increased economic growth, therefore be it
RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee urges Congress to repeal Citizenship-Based Taxation and its supporting legislation such as FATCA and FBAR;
RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee urges Congress to permit restoration of citizenship for those who were compelled to renounce their citizenship because of the crushing burdens of FATCA and FBAR; and
RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee urges Congress to align U.S. law with the laws of other industrialized countries of the world by limiting taxation to Residence Based Taxation on American Citizens living overseas which will encourage increased employment of Americans and increased export of American goods and services.
Chief Sponsor – Solomon Yue, Jr., Republican National Committeeman for Oregon (Vice Chairman and CEO of Republicans Overseas)
1st Co-Sponsor – Carolyn McLarty, Republican National Committeewoman for Oklahoma (Chairman of the RNC Resolution Committee and Member of Republicans Overseas Board of Governors)
2nd Co-Sponsor – Jeff Kent, Republican National Committeeman for Washington (Vice Chairman of the RNC and Member of Republicans Overseas Worldwide Advisory Committee)…..and others
@Polly
For the longest period… I thought SOL was sh*t out of luck… I found out recently it meant… statute of limitaton… lol
@US_Foreign_Person
Its especially hard for expats – people who have been living far away for decades! Actually- for most foreigners.
@Stephen Kish
If I can get solid documentation that the RNC has voted to kill the CBT in a resolution this Friday, I will begin pushing this with my contacts in the Republican Party here stateside.
By “solid documentation” I mean something that shows that opposition to CBT has spread to the core stateside Republican Party and isn’t limited to known opponents of CBT like Republicans Overseas, Isaac Brock Society, and Maple Sandbox.
Republicans Overseas seems to be a small organization devoting a significant part (all?) of its resources to this one issue.
Dash, I believe that on Friday the kill CBT RNC resolution will be passed and you can then receive proof of this, but I can’t provide you with the “solid documentation” you need that the opposition by the RNC to CBT has also spread to core Republicans in the House and Senate.
I suspect strongly that there are (many?) senior people in Congress (both Republicans and Democrats) who need first to be educated on the harms caused by CBT.
Do you think that the RNC resolution is a reasonable start? If the resolution has any influence, we will find in time more and more senior members of the Republican Party taking up the cause and being vocal about this.
Yes, RO is a “small” organization (but ADCS is a LOT smaller) and much of its time is devoted to killing FATCA and CBT. I personally like the RO leadership and the litigator Jim Bopp, and will do what I can to support them.
I think of Republicans Overseas like the Tea Party movement, a faction within the Republican Party that has influence. How much influence remains to be seen.
In any case, I am very happy to see that at least somebody in the homeland is reaching out to help expats.
The Dems are a huge disappointment.
@Stephen Kish
“Do you think that the RNC resolution is a reasonable start?”
Yes I believe it would be a huge step forward. It would then allow me to attend PCO meetings and ask candidates what they think of this matter–with the RNC (as opposed to smaller organizations devoted primarily to fighting this one issue) weighing in it is time for them to form an opinion. And once they are forced to take an opinion, it will be hard for Republicans to take opinion favoring any increase in taxes (and FATCA/CBT in practice represents a tax increase for expats far beyond anything seen).
I didn’t have that at the meeting in July–and it looks like they are taking a summer break in August now that the primary is done but the general election is a few months away–but from September to early November we will definitely have the attention of the candidates. So getting tangible support from the RNC before September will be huge.
The bad news is that many of the districts are clearly dominated by Democrats. But there are some Republicans who have a chance.
Of course as I noted in another thread–I will present this from a point of view that is likely to win support locally–for example, emphasizing how this is making it increasingly difficult for Americans to do business abroad. Some of the Republican candidates are themselves originally immigrants–like me–and hopefully won’t freeze like a deer in the headlights when I mention an international issue.
The 168-member Republican National Committee just passed the RNC Resolution Supporting Residence Based Taxation unanimously. Republicans Overseas will make sure that the RNC RBT resolution will become part of the 2016 National Republican Platform.
Mark,
Thanks for the good news. I have updated the above post.
A small group of very committed people in Republicans Overseas is making this happen.
This is historic for Americans living abroad. Now the knives are really going to come out against us. Democrats Abroad are becoming more irrelevant every day.
Excellent news! Does anyone have a link for this either from the RNC itself or perhaps from a press release or press story? Although the following link yesterday clearly showing that this was in the works is certainly a good start in terms of press coverage:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/7/rnc-chairman-targets-federal-banking-law-in-effort/
https://www.facebook.com/republicansoverseas
https://upload.facebook.com/republicansoverseas/photos/a.197014807148989.1073741828.187406564776480/279541508896318/?type=1
Solomon Yue
@SolomonYue RNC passed Resolution Supporting Residence Based Taxation unanimously. It’ll be part of 2016 Nat’l GOP Platform http://ow.ly/A7daa #TCOT
@Mark Twain
Thanks Mark but I was familiar with the Republicans Overseas Facebook page and am monitoring it myself quite closely. I’m looking for something, not from Republicans Overseas, but from the RNC itself–or a press release or press account from major news media. I went to the RNC’s website:
http://www.gop.com/
I couldn’t find anything there yet. Of course that could mean either that this is so recent that it hasn’t been posted yet–or that I didn’t search in the right way.
don’t see anything anywhere yet. The RNC pages are too general. RO is low budget, facebook is their only means.
RO will have to persuade news outlets to publicize–I suspect that will take a few days.
It seems that the parties usually lay pretty low. If you should search for DNC on twitter, you get only references to CNN.
As a PCO, I will contact my District Chair for the Republicans to see if she has any information. I will give it a few days, though, because it might take a little time for the information to percolate back to the appropriate people.
@Bubbles….”Now the knives are really going to come out against us.”
Well the knives were already out…….
I agree, but we are hated anyway.
Same thing happens when you try to leave a gang.
This is really outstanding!
The word needs to be spread far and wide to expats all over the world, the Republicans are listening.
As for the Democrats — nothing but *crickets chirping*
Video from RNC and Republicans Overseas explaining FATCA, why it needs to go, and what you can do http://youtu.be/zUism7KaqQ8
Does RNC support of RBT include a call for “no exit taxes”?
Unusually, my companions at lunch today were three CEOs of UK banks, one with assets of more than £250 billion. The subject turned to FATCA. “We all hate it” was the general consensus. “We have giving up accepting American clients.”
But then I made a remark in favour of RBT. Their response was “Oh, but RBT Is on the way out.” Here are the examples I was given.
An Italian citizen who moves his residence to tax a haven (a “black list” country) must continue to pay Italian tax on his worldwide income. The “black list” even includes the UK (if he is taxed there on the remittance basis). “We can no longer work with some Italian clients.”
Germany and Canada were mentioned as countries that no longer have pure RBT, because they have increasingly severe exit taxes. “Our Canadian clients are having a very hard time”, I was told.
“Expect to see more and more of this”, one said.