Lobby the New US Government!

96 thoughts on “Lobby the New US Government!”

1. @trish

   Believe it or not, I actually heard back from my congressman’s office after I emailed him a letter or two. I think his minion wished he’d never called – did I give him an ear full!

   As promised, I recently wrote to same congressman expecting the GOP would keep its campaign promises as outlined in the Republican platform. I plan to follow up with a phone call. Thanks for the reminder.

2. Anthony: I’m sorry for not responding to your comment before now. Traveling and illness got in the way.

   We’ve been trying to interest the mainstream media in our issue for many years now with only sporadic success. You are right. We need mainstream media interest …. sustained interest …. in our cause. Now that the Republican Party is about to take full control of the US government it’s probably a very good time to re-visit our attempts, particularly with Republican-leaning media, considering that the Republicans have publicly endorsed our position in their election platform.

   The following website gives a chart of various mainstream media and the trust level that people of various leanings place in each one. This chart may help you and others to select the best media outlets to contact. Thanks for your interest!

   https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-examples-of-mainstream-media-outlets-displaying-a-bias-that-favors-Republicans

3. Make a comment re OUR situation and having more than one passport MILLIONAIRES / NOT Steve Kroft reports on citizenship https://www.facebook.com/60minutes/

4. Taken from the American Expatriates Facebook group.
   IMPORTANT

   Breaking news: Congressman George Holding (R-NC13), member of the Ways and Means Committee, supports residence-based taxation and is trying to include it within the upcoming tax reform. Other members of the committee also agree with the idea in general, but are just not motivated to spend the time to study the subject and write a bill. I received this information from the congressman’s assistant.

   It would be helpful if many people contacted the other members of the committee to show them the importance of the subject. I suggest giving personal examples of the problems and mentioning the solution (residence-based taxation). I know that many of you have already done this multiple times, but now there is someone supportive within the committee, apparently for the first time ever. For efficiency, I recommend contacting directly the assistants specifically assigned to taxes. The link below is a list with their names and email addresses (it will change slightly later this month). Thank you for your help.

   Contact list here as Google spreadsheet:
   Current Finance Committee and Ways & Mean Committee contact list

5. @Barbara, whenever I see you have posted I know its good stuff. 🙂

6. @ Barbara,
   Thanks very much for the Finance Committee and Ways & Means Committee contact list spreadsheet! I added it to the original post.

7. Let’s get writing, folks. New Congress just started. Tax reform supposedly on the agenda. I know we are all battle fatigued, but this is, I’m afraid, probably our last chance. Period. If they don’t dump FATCA and CBT in this round, it just isn’t going to happen. By August is the Congressional recess, followed by full campaign mode for 2018, followed by a possibly Democratic swing into Congress in reaction to the Trump administration. And you and I will all be waiting six or more years in hope that the next administration will finally do something.

8. @Barbara

   I got a response back from Congressman Reichert’s office acknowledging my letter and promising to pass it on to the congressman. Some will remember him. He expressed concerns about FATCA:

   http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/10/19/washington-rep-reichert-questions-irs-regarding-fatca-igas/

9. @bubblebustin
   Hope you don’t mind me transferring your letter here. I think it provides a good example to others who will be writing. It’s brief enough to get read by a busy congress person, yet hits the key points without overcomplicating the issue. Glad to hear you’ve already had one response and I hope more to follow.

   I am a US citizen who has lived in Canada since childhood. Much to my surprise, I recently learned I am also considered a US taxpayer by the US government. After spending six figures of my retirement income earned solely in Canada to come into US tax compliance, I am now faced with having to renounce my US citizenship due to the ongoing complexities of filing US taxes from abroad. This is something I do not take lightly.

   No other country undergoing tax reform has maintained a tax system based on taxing its non-resident citizens. The US should join the rest of the modern world and allow its non-resident citizens the ability to thrive as Americans in the US do by returning to a system based on residency, as every other citizen of every other country (save Eritrea) enjoys.

   Americans are renouncing their US citizenships in record numbers, not because we do not cherish our US citizenships, but because we must in order to live normal lives. I fail to see how the US benefits from such policies that either prevent its citizens from leaving the US, or once gone cause their US citizenship to be such an extreme problem for them that they are forced to renounce US citizenship.

   The US government is the single biggest threat to Americans living abroad. You have the power to change this. I implore you to do so.

10. Thanks EmBee. No problem at all.

    Do you think the last paragraph about the US being the single biggest threat to Americans abroad is over the top?

    I suppose if I’d made it the first paragraph they might have ignored me.

11. @ Bubblebustin
    It is NOT over the top and I liked your response to their response too. Personalized follow-ups really drive home how serious you are about this.

12. PS,

    Kudos to our man on the inside, Shadow Raider for providing us the list of assistant’s emails by which to reach these committee members.

13. “Do you think the last paragraph about the US being the single biggest threat to Americans abroad is over the top?”

    It is not.

    Also I would strengthen a statement:

    As the IRS’s Taxpayer Advocate reported to Congress at least twice, Americans are renouncing their US citizenships in record numbers, not because we do not cherish our US citizenships, but because we must in order to live normal lives. In 2011 the IRS observed record renunciations by honest taxpayers because it is impossible to make completely accurate guesses of how to comply with regulations, some so complicated that even the IRS cannot figure out how to comply. In ____[2012?] the IRS observed how counterproductive FATCA is and asked “Why are we tormenting these people?”

14. @Barbara

    Yes, it may very well be our last chance. I’m pretty sure it is for me. Having to deal with my US citizenship is not something I want to burden my children with when I am no longer able to manage my own affairs.

    That said, I read something a US politician said the other day when he quoted his father. He said “I don’t expect my government to solve all of my problems, but I do expect them to understand them.” The US government has only started to understand our problems. Whether they have the impetus to do anything about them at this point is an unknown. Not telling them won’t help.

    @Norman

    You should tell them.

15. @Pacifica777: Is it possible to make this a new, separate, pinned post on the main page? As I said, this may be our last real chance, and we should put in at least as much effort in the next couple weeks as we did when the Senate Finance Committee asked for input.

16. Here’s the letter I wrote (and sent to everyone on the list – I hope someone reads it):

    When my ancestors emigrated from England to America in the 1630s they were seeking freedom: freedom to live, work, and worship as they pleased. Their descendants were among the patriotic Americans who fought for freedom from taxation without representation in the Revolutionary war. My grandmother proudly researched and documented her ancestry so that she could join the Daughters of the American Revolution. In the 21st century, however, Americans are no longer free to live and work where they please if they choose to live outside of the United States. In 2016, my husband and I felt we were forced to renounce our American citizenship – for the very reason that my ancestors fought in the American Revolution. The American practice of taxing citizens, regardless of where they live, seriously disadvantages American expats. Congress must act as soon as possible to change to residence based taxation.

    As Australian residents and dual citizens, we were unable to save for retirement under the same rules as our neighbors. As dual Australia-New Zealand citizens, our neighbors were able to take full advantage of the tax incentives available for retirement savings in Australia. We, however, were taxed by the United States on our Australian superannuation contributions. Any savings we placed in Australian mutual funds were subject to the confiscatory Passive Foreign Investment Company (PFIC) rules on our American tax returns. Investment in American mutual funds, which subject us to unwanted foreign exchange risk, have become more difficult for American taxpayers living outside the United States, leaving American expats with few options for long-term savings.

    When American expats are unable to invest, or start businesses on a level playing field, this disadvantages the America as a whole. American businesses will be forced to hire non-Americans for overseas assignments, reducing the number of Americans with the international experience necessary to compete in a global economy. American small businesses are severely disadvantaged when expanding internationally due to both FATCA and the American practice of citizenship based taxation. For these reasons, I urge you to support changing to a system of residence based taxation, which is used by every country on the planet other than Eritrea and the United States.

    Sincerely,
    Karen
    fixthetaxtreaty.org

    I received a couple of autoreplies – but no real replies (then again, I sent most of them in the evening my time, which is in the middle of the night in the US)

17. @Karen : One of your best.

18. These AICPA resources provide some useful fodder for demonstrating how the US government is harming those ‘abroad’ – even those trying to be ‘compliant’;

    http://www.aicpa.org/Advocacy/Tax/DownloadableDocuments/AICPA-Comments-on-Simplification-of-Tax-Filing-Obligations-for-Americans-Living-Abroad-08-15-16.pdf

    http://www.aicpa.org/advocacy/cpaadvocate/2016/pages/us-canada-cross-border-accounts.aspx
    AICPA Presses U.S. Treasury to Adopt Recommendations to Ease Tax Burden on U.S. and Canadian Citizens Holding Certain Cross-Border Accounts
    Published March 30, 2016

    http://www.aicpa.org/advocacy/tax/downloadabledocuments/2016-03-04-comments-on-proposed-tax-relief-us-can-equivalent-purpose-def-tax-savings-plans.pdf

    And if it is reasonable to grant for Canadians, then what about other equivalent government registered and created savings plans in other countries?

19. Some of you will be calling legislative assistants on the phone and sending letters, emails, etc. to Republican and Democrat members of US Congress explaining what you want the new tax reform package to contain.

    This is only a suggestion:

    If you are comfortable with the term, you might want to use the term “territorial taxation” in your correspondence — to be consistent with the term used in the Republican platform, which aims “…to switch to a territorial system of taxation…”

    “Territorial taxation” is not defined for individuals, and you can explain to the Congress People how specifically you would like it to be applied to persons in your situation.

    In your letters you might also disclose clearly the objective of your letter in the first couple of sentences to make it easy for the reader.

20. @ Barbara,
    Per your suggestion, I’ve created a post specifically for this contacting the Ways and Means Committee project. Thanks for the idea — and the spreadsheet!

21. Might be helpful to look back at this;
    A very interesting historic document from 1995 in which CBT, the exit tax and taxation of those renouncing was discussed, including criticisms that it might erect a barrier to expatriation which conflicted with the internationally recognized right to choose one’s citizenship, and the US citizenship based taxation is noted as ‘unusual’ in the world, etc. See Taxation of Individuals Who Renounce Their U.S. Citizenship
    https://www.finance.senate.gov/…/taxation-of-individuals-who-renounce-their-us-citiz…
    4 days ago – Senate Hearing S. HRG. 104-381 TAXATION OF INDIVIDUALS WHO RENOUNCE. THEIR U.S. CITIZENSHIP. HEARING. BEFORE THE. COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. UNITED STATES SENATE. March 21, 1995 https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/23016-cc.pdf
    https://www.finance.senate.gov/download/taxation-of-individuals-who-renounce-their-us-citizenship.

    Another interesting tidbit or aside is that one of the persons appearing before that Senate Finance Committee in 1995 in support of an exit tax regime and US extraterritorial taxation of those outside the US, appears to be the very same H. David Rosenbloom of Caplin & Drysdale, who was invited/invited himself ? to Canada ( the record says he is appearing “as an individual” ) and who appeared several times before the Canadian government’s Finance Committee re FATCA and US extraterritorial taxation ( https://openparliament.ca/search/?q=h.+david+rosenbloom+fatca https://openparliament.ca/search/?q=Person:+%22H.+David+Rosenbloom%22 ).

    You all may have see this before, but so much time has passed that since I can’t even remember whether I’ve read it, I am placing a copy here. Well worth reading…..

    And it is one source of the ‘Berlin Wall’ metaphor employed here and other expat forums – when describing the punitive exit tax and expatriation regime the US employs to stop people abroad from renouncing/relinquishing.

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