Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 155 Comments

Thanks to comment on Brock from *Johnson*. Good find by Johnson, but merely a mention of individual expat submissions from the Senate International Tax Reform Committee.

The Senate International Tax Reform report is out.

It’s 82 pages all about corporate taxes until the final paragraph where they acknowledge receiving a large number of submissions from US expatriates regarding individual international tax issues. But they aren’t going to do anything about it.

In skimming through this, I see that there is reference to individual taxation issues (what is presently in place, I think).

This is what the final section, the one we’re most interested in, says (and doesn’t say):

F. Overseas Americans

According to working group submissions, there are currently 7.6 million American citizens living outside of the United States. Of the 347 submissions made to the international working group, nearly three-quarters dealt with the international taxation of individuals, mainly focusing on citizenship-based taxation, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), and the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR).

While the co-chairs were not able to produce a comprehensive plan to overhaul the taxation of individual Americans living overseas within the time-constraints placed on the working group, the co-chairs urge the Chairman and Ranking Member to carefully consider the concerns articulated in the submissions moving forward.

155 thoughts on “82 page U.S. Senate International Tax Reform Report released…”

  1. Badger, I’m not sure it ever had any resonance for the American public. Even now few homelanders have much awareness of the number of US cits abroad and even the ones who do have a certain ambivalence toward us. It’s usefulness and pertinence was probably limited to people in the US government – some lawmakers and some bureaucrats.

    If we are not “unofficial ambassadors” then what are we? I suspect we are classed somewhere above “illegal immigrants” and below true “citizens”. I don’t think that the homelanders – politicians or public – feel a strong sense of moral obligation toward us. In fact I doubt they think much about us at all – except for that damn list that comes out every quarter. 🙂

    Just my .02 here but we might find our strength if we first admit that we are weak and not terribly important to them. We can write all the position papers and letters we like but we just don’t have the clout or the relevance (money and votes) to get them to pay attention for more than a 20 minute meet and greet.

    So what can we do? Quite a lot actually. We may not have any political power or moral high ground in their eyes but given enough motivation we do have the ability to be a nuisance. The court cases are that and more – if those IGAs go then watch the whole edifice start to shake and shudder. There is also the fine work people here and in other places which shine a spotlight on the contradictions and devilish details inherent in their grand plan – the disconnect between those “rich tax evaders” and some retiree on a fixed income in France who gets thrown out of his bank. And finally those renunciations which bother them. A lot. Every time the list comes out and the media leaps on it we have an opportunity to make them sweat. Stuff like that…

  2. @ Victoria
    “We may not have any political power or moral high ground in their eyes but given enough motivation we do have the ability to be a nuisance.”

    Yes … nuisance … we can do this. We’re the mosquito swat team.

  3. “Every time the list comes out and the media leaps on it we have an opportunity to make them sweat.”

    No, they don’t sweat. We’re all tax evaders, and after renouncing we don’t have to pay any taxes at all. They don’t understand that 99% of complying people had $0 in US taxes because we already pay higher rates where we live. We have no carrot to offer, no stick to offer, and no way to make them sweat.

  4. I agree with @Norman, that no homelander or politician breaks a sweat at the renunciation figures. More accurately, they are mildly scandalized. That someone would throw away US citizenship is beyond comprehension, like chopping off your finger with your family heirloom 5-carat diamond ring and tossing it off a pier. The annual or sometimes quarterly release of figures is inevitably followed by articles titled, “Another 3000 wealthy Americans shed citizenship to avoid taxes”, with the comments sections consisting 25% of Brockers making reasonable comments, and 75% of replies saying, “Good riddance, traters!” (such people usually can’t spell).

  5. Badger –

    You just went fishing for a red herring.

    To watch a conclave of documentarians and a passel of judiciarians posture with yap about rumble and movement and force goes far beyond inducing a severe case of gut-busting hahahas. After almost four years of incessant virtual hand-wringing over the plight of extraterritorials, not one single demo has occurred outside a U.S. embassy or consulate anywhere. Call that lack of activity bumble and removement and farce.  ROTFLMAO !!!
     

  6. Mosquitos: I have an idea. Congressional offices tend to pick up the phone, so let’s call the Finance Committee incessantly and demand that they do something concrete about the last section of their international report. I suggest we get about 50 people, each one calling on a different business hour of the week. It would take only a few minutes a week for each person, but for them it would be constant and very annoying. If we get more people, we could call even more often, or do the same for Ways and Means or individual congressmen. But we’d have to organize to make sure each person is calling at a different time, and enough people to fill the whole week. Maybe that would make them see the “crisis” that Jack Townsend mentioned. And if they finally show some real interest but want to talk to someone in person, I’m offering to go there again. What do you think?

  9. Count me in too, Shadow Raider. Admin can give you my email addy if you don’t still have it. Let’s coordinate. I’m in the Pacific time zone.

  10. Operation Mosquito
    Following Victoria’s idea that we should be like mosquitos and make some noise to make ourselves noticed, I’m organizing a campaign to call the Senate Finance Committee every hour for one week. If you want to join, please follow the steps below.
    1. Open this link and type your name, nickname or initials on one available time slot. The spreadsheet should save automatically. The times correspond to 9am-5pm in Washington, DC, Monday to Friday next week. The other locations and time zones are only for your reference, feel free to add yours if it’s not already listed. Times in bold are on the following day.
    2. On your selected time, call the Senate Finance Committee at +1 202-224-4515. If it’s busy or no one answers, please try again in a few minutes. But you don’t have to call if it’s already time for someone else.
    3. I suggest saying something like this: “Hi, my name is ___, I’m a US citizen living in ___. I’d like to urge the Senate Finance Committee to overhaul the taxation of individual Americans living abroad, as soon as possible, as the committee indicated in a report it recently released. Could you please pass this message to the rest of the committee?”. Of course, you can modify this as you wish, but please be polite, and try not to take too long. Thanks!

  11. I forgot to add that it’s better for only US citizens to call. In the first paragraph above, it should read “If you are still a US citizen and want to join, please follow the steps below.”

  13. “I forgot to add that it’s better for only US citizens to call.”

    I wonder. I bet that the calls won’t make any difference, but in a parallel universe where they make a difference, I wonder if it would be better for all victims to call.

    “Hi, my name is ___, I’m a FORMER US citizen living in ___. I no longer give a rat’s ass about US taxation of individual Americans living abroad, but for the sake of other innocent people who are about to get targeted, I’d like to urge the Senate Finance Committee to overhaul the taxation of individual Americans living abroad, as soon as possible, as the committee indicated in a report it recently released. Could you please pass this message to the rest of the committee?”

    “Hi, my name is ___, I’m married to a US citizen living in ___, but have to get divorced to get my life back. I’d like to urge the Senate Finance Committee …”

    “Hi, I work for ___, a giant US-based company for which you fall all over yourselves rushing to give tax benefits. But now we have to fire any US citizens who came to work at our branch. I’d like to urge the Senate Finance Committee …”

  14. “Hi, my name is Maya Soetoro-Ng, a US citizen from Indonesia. My father left some trust accounts to be inherited by me and my brother. My brother is going to be in big trouble because he forgot to file FBAR for his trust account. I’d like to urge the Senate Finance Committee to overhaul the taxation of individual Americans, as soon as possible, as the committee indicated in a report it recently released. Could you please pass this message to the rest of the committee? See, we don’t even need help from Kenya, because my brother’s American law will get him in trouble all by itself.”

  15. “Hi, my name is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, I’m a non-resident alien so I don’t have to file FBAR. I’d like to urge the Senate Finance Committee NOT to overhaul the taxation of individual Americans living abroad, as the committee indicated in a report it recently released. You see, we’re on your side. When we catch those traitorous tax-evading individual Americans living abroad, we’ll take care of them for you. Could you please pass this message to the rest of the committee?”.

  16. Some extra help ACA

    Once the candidate field gets culled down, ACA normally asks the candidates to provide a written statement as to how they will address the issues affecting Americans living and working overseas. We have done this with every Presidential Election going back to the 1970s.

    Thanks!

    Marylouise

  17. Called FIRST time staffer has received a call re EXPat Tax

    Call in Senate Finance Committee at +1 202-224-4515

    Approx 30 staffers each side whole finance committee (R) (D)

    After talking to staffer you may want to ask to talk to or leave message for the main people regarding our concerns

    Eric Oman (R)

    Tiffany Smith (D)

  22. Anyone know on Fox News how to search all comments (15000 plus now) for keyword tax to check out expat comments (except for clicking 50 at a time)

    Fox News
    July 7 at 6:00am ·
    What is YOUR one question for the candidates? Fox News and Facebook are teaming up to bring you the first GOP presidential debate. Submit your question in the comments below or click here: http://bit.ly/1H4seMV to upload a photo or video. It could be featured in the debate August 6th on Fox News Channel!

  24. I have received your emails. We’ve met with several US citizen living abroad who described the issues to us. It’s something we are looking at as part of tax reform.

    Best,

    Tiffany Smith
    Senior Tax Counsel
    Senate Finance Committee
    (202) 224-4515

    Her email tiffany_smith@finance.senate.gov

  25. Thanks Tiffany

    Please elaborate on what is being planned

    Smith, Tiffany (Finance)

    I can’t elaborate at this time.

    Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network.

    Will I see some action in a week ? month ?

    Smith, Tiffany (Finance)

    I’m not sure on the timing of tax reform, but it will not happen that fast. The discussions are long term.

    Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network

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