One of the most common justifications among DC tax professors and policy wonks for taxing US homelanders and US Persons abroad in the exact same way is “horizontal equity”: the idea that “similarly-situated” taxpayers should pay similar amounts to the US government. Naturally, these people see the current situation, in which U.S. Persons Abroad get all these “great tax breaks”, as horribly unfair. So here’s a handy table comparing the paperwork which U.S. homelanders and U.S. Persons Abroad must complete in order to conduct similarly-situated kinds of financial activities. All estimates are courtesy of the Paperwork Reduction Act.
