We have written Congress & been ignored-The 1,000 Letter Campaign on Washington, DC-1000 at the same time by Apr! 3 http://t.co/qu4K8jIbB6
— Patricia Moon (@nobledreamer16) March 19, 2015
Recently, a number of expats from different groups have been connecting, reposting/retweeting each other and talking about combining efforts. Even if we don’t agree on every point, we can still support each other with regard to the Senate Finance Committee’s call for tax reform. Either in connection with your own submission or perhaps actually joining this group (Facebook), please consider the following:
Until now we have been writing Congress separately – individual letters that were ignored.
Imagine if 1,000 or more wrote Congress AT THE SAME TIME.
We are asking you to please join us on our 1000 Letter Campaign on Washington.
How can you participate?
Simply write your congress person asking them to support Rand Paul’s legislation (S.663) to repeal the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
We even provide you a suggested template so that you can tell your story. Of course, if you want to write your own letter, please feel free to do so.
Please go to the “Files” tab in this Facebook group and you will find the templates for you titled, “American Overseas Letter Template” and for your family and friends titled, “Family-Friends Letter Template”.
Download the templates and follow the instructions on how to complete your letter. You are provided links (highlighted in blue) to add the necessary information.
Though this is not an AARO sponsored campaign, AARO would like to know to whom you have sent your letters as they are in regular contact with key members of Congress. Please inform them at aaro@aaro.org.
Let your voice be heard!
Every letter/email counts!
If Senators or Representatives get more than 5 letters on a particular subject, they are more likely to take note and respond to their constituents.
So, let’s multiply our individual efforts by 5! Ask family and friends stateside to join in this campaign!
The more people who write the better! Please share this campaign!
For those who want to share this campaign, please find below the links to the two templates:
American Overseas Letter Template: https://www.dropbox.com/s/es5encpmq1af7uy/American%20Overseas%20Letter%20Template.docx?dl=0″
Family-Friends Letter Template: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hkonlzv1l3uo5a3/Family-Friends%20Letter%20Template.docx?dl=0
You can retrieve the letter from Dropbox without being connected to Facebook. These are the points in the form letter that each representative is being asked to consider:
As your constituent, I urge you to consider these possible solutions:
1. Support current legislation introduced by Rand Paul (S.663) to repeal the Foreign Account Tax
Compliance Act
2. Support Residence-Based Taxation when tax reform is reviewed in Congress, or
3. Support a definition of “foreign” in Treasury and IRS regulations which excludes financial accounts
already reported in the country of bona fide residence.
4. Support a general and complete IRS amnesty for a limited period of time to allow the non-willful
non-compliant US taxpayer to enter the system without fear of penalties.
The letter USCitizenAbroad has suggested is here.
I leave it to you as to whether you want to notify AARO or not………
Excellent initiative.
This is an idea (I believe) of Keith Redmond, a very active expat living in Paris. He administers the American Expatriates FB page.
https://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2015/03/15/important-new-effort-to-seek-input-on-bipartisan-tax-reform-input-needed/
Commonize your letters to your Congresspersons and to the SEnate finance committee.
The committee takes your comments directly, and your Congresspersons are responsible to take concerns from their district to the committees.
I am unable to participate in this initiative but I have set my hopes on the IBS (or is it ADCS?) video and testimonial package also being sent to Washington very soon.
Every U.S. State has 2 U.S. Senators, and every residence within a State is within exactly one U.S. House district. Therefore, if you have a voting address in a U.S. State, you can write to both U.S. Senators and the U.S. Representative corresponding to that address.
Get idea, and easy too 🙂
United we stand! Divided we fall!
If you are having trouble composing a letter, I draw your attention to a possible Template suggested in this tweet:
https://twitter.com/USCitizenAbroad/status/578875857349029888
which reads:
“#Americansabroad must write the @SenateFinance Committee Suggested ltr via @KRed65 https://www.facebook.com/groups/AmericanExpatriates/441821339317277/ … – Is #FATCA destroying your life?”
Perhaps this should/could be added to the original post?
@USCitizenAbroad
Thanks. I’ve linked it above.
And it seems that Democrats Abroad is seeking support for its lame Safe Harbor proposal. But, what the hey, I’ve got some documentation to support them, which I will send.