Please submit to Ways Means. One line. One paragraph. One page. One dissertation. Whatever.
ADDTIONAL NOTE: THE HEARING IS BASED UPON REDUCING IRS PAPERWORK and gives 2 means to potentially achieve that end. FOCUS YOUR COMMENTS UPON REDUCTION OF COMPLEXITY and cost savings in eliminating paperwork. Also, payment for services rendered such as the consumption tax they mention.
EXPRESS SUPPORT FOR CONSUMPTION TAXES and disgust for flat taxes which would devastate us.
Quantity of Responses should overwhelm the discussion. There should be no excuses for Ways Means to not address it.
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/boustany-announces-hearing-on-fundamental-tax-reform-proposals/
Public Submissions For Record
Please click here to submit a statement or letter for the record
WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Ways and Means Tax Policy Subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany (R-LA) announced that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing entitled “Fundamental Tax Reform Proposals” on Tuesday, March 22nd at 2:30 PM in room 1100 of the Longworth House Office Building. This will be the first in a series of hearings where members of both parties will have the opportunity to share, discuss, and promote their proposals for tax reform. The particular focus of this hearing will be legislative proposals presenting cash-flow and consumption-based approaches to taxation.
Upon announcing the hearing, Chairman Boustany said:
“Chairman Brady has laid out a strong vision and set of policy goals for making our broken tax code simpler, flatter, and fairer. Tax reform represents a crucial part of our party’s pro-growth agenda, and I am committed to accomplishing these goals by considering bold, new ideas and building consensus among our members. Next week’s discussion will give my Ways and Means colleagues and me the opportunity to take a closer look at the forward-thinking proposals for tax reform that our members have developed.”
Let’s recognize in advance that there are many on this site who are not willful U.S. citizens, but let’s hope that the repeal segment of readers can step up to the plate.
remember FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS: All submissions must include a list of all clients, persons and/or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears. The name, company, address, telephone, and fax numbers of each witness must be included in the body of the email. Please exclude any personal identifiable information in the attached submission.
If not, submission is dismissed.
We have done this already in 2015, 2014, 2013….I’ll make the commitment to do it again, but I received the message loud and clear that they do not care. Even with a republican majority in both houses, they do not care.
Not my government. I couldn’t care less what they say or do down there. Total waste of time. Not only will they not address expat tax problems, they will not reform their tax code. They might decide to make it more complicated, however.
Yes, they do not care. But if the avalanche grows larger, at some point they will no longer be able to ignore.
Nothing happens overnight — it took Gandhi decades to win independence for India; Mandela was in prison for 25 years. We will not prevail if we do not persist.
Admins – could someone please make the link http://waysandmeans.house.gov/boustany-announces-hearing-on-fundamental-tax-reform-proposals/ in the main body of the post click-able. Some html must be missing.
maz57 – “not my government”
I don’t accept their rule either, but they won’t let me go. I have not yet decided whether I’m ready to put my real name to a submission, but I have relatives who still live stateside and I know that at least one or two of them will make a submission on my behalf.
Will you write a comment on this page, or will you write any similar comment on that webpage?
Will you waste your air complaining to your friends? Or will you send in one sentence to that location?
Are you a whiner? Are you a Trump fan that whines about everything and is looking for your savior? Do you think Bernie is going to give you a free tax accountant? Will Hillary make a civil war in your country and make your life so miserable that you don’t worry about filing taxes? Do you think Kasich is going to rise up and save you? Do you mind paying Cruz’ 10% flat tax?
Karen,
Now linkable – let me know if any other issue there. Thanks.
It’s beginning to feel like Groundhog Day, but I’ll do it. How hard is it to c & c another submission?
“The only time you don’t fail is the last time you try anything — and it works.” ~William Strong
Tha link to Comments from individuals appears have vanished from:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/presentations-and-submissions-on-fatcacbt/
I believed that these were saved elsewhere, though…
I agree that this may be another waste of time, BUT we all have to do this. Its worth a shot even if its just a short note. We have to flood them with letters asking for RBT. It may only be a 1% chance someone will listen but if they don’t hear from us it is 0% chance of anyone listening. I urge everyone to write and focus on the switching to RBT. Encourage all other Americans abroad to do the same thing.
Please think of what Lynne Swanson has accomplished with what as I understand it, was one tweet that the reporter from IPOLITICS picked up and then did an excellent follow up investigative report.
As @ Phil says: it is worth a shot.
Your voice could make a huge difference.
@Mark Twain. The last thing I want to do is to pick a fight with you because I believe we are on the same side. But in response to all of your questions above, my answer is no. I believe that any relief expats might get from this ridiculous state of affairs will not come from the US government. I’ve been watching them in action for about 60 years and during that time they haven’t learned a damn thing about anything. Probably the only reason they seek public comment is because they are required by law to go though the motions. I doubt they even read them.
Don’t you think that if anyone down there was listening 4000+ renunciations per year would be a far stronger statement than a letter to some committee? Their response was to hike the fees to slow down the exodus (“there, that should fix the problem”) but the numbers continue to rise. Their position is brutally clear; they just don’t care. Our Canadian government doesn’t care either but at least we can sue them.
The most affirmative action a US expat can take is get rid of US citizenship as soon as possible to avoid getting caught in the train wreck. Short of that there are only 2 realistic options left; be non-compliant or move back to the US.
I applaud your efforts and I sincerely hope I am proved wrong.
House Ways & Means are asking more than Senate Finance in terms of requirements. All these contact requirements last time?
@Bubblebustin:
The SFC submissions are all here:
http://fatca.eu.pn
Wish we could just resubmit these en masse to Ways and Means.
I agree that this exercise is probably fruitless. But I strongly agree with Mark Twain that the effort it takes to post yet one more ranting argument against CBT here (preaching to the choir), can also be spent sending a message to the Ways and Means Committee. I frankly don’t see the downside to making a submission. Either they ignore us or they listen to us. It certainly won’t make things worse.
@maz57.
Yes. And I am probably even more cynical. But I’ve been wasting a lot of air in these last years complaining about it. I really should be more focused and stop complaining about it and only focus my efforts towards Congress and media. But I don’t focus and as a result a lot of air just gets consumed for no end result. This is a chance to refocus it.
remember FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS: All submissions must include a list of all clients, persons and/or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears. The name, company, address, telephone, and fax numbers of each witness must be included in the body of the email. Please exclude any personal identifiable information in the attached submission.
If not, submission is dismissed.
Thank you, Barbara, for this incredible resource!
Not making a submission guarantees we don’t get heard – something we can only blame ourselves for.
Barbara,
The work that you and EmBee did to save the submissions will now pay off for those who want to resubmit their prior submissions.
I’m no longer a USC so again I won’t be submitting to this US government body. Good luck all.
From the instructions:
3. Failure to follow the formatting requirements may result in the exclusion of a submission. All submissions for the record are final.
Failure to follow the formatting … $10,000 penalty … just kidding … that’s how my mind is conditioned.
I suppose you could call the posted number and plead that your negligence was non-wilful, EmBee, and perhaps be allowed to enter an amnesty program.
@ Bubblebustin
Not gonna happen. I encourage others who are or have been American to take another kick at the W&M can but I’m not and never have been American so I’m staying the course here in Canada and just engaging with Canadian politicians.
@EmBee
I don’t blame you – one set of politicians is bad enough.
So I put my issues in a word doc and mail that two them with the body of the message containing my name and address etc?
@Neill
From what I can ascertain, you leave the attached word doc (your submission) devoid of anything that would identify you. The email (cover letter, if you will) which the doc is attached to has your name, company, address, etc (as per instructions). That’s how I did it any way.