Democrats Abroad supports strong policy that discourages and apprehends tax cheats.
Congress passed FATCA to bring an end to illegal tax avoidance by Americans in the US who use overseas financial accounts to secret untaxed earnings out of the country.
But Congress did not fully anticipate the impact the regulations would have on overseas Americans and we, therefore, are now burdened with a tax reporting obligation that treats us like suspected tax cheats and money launderers.
Fortunately for overseas Americans, we can address the unintended adverse consequences of this important piece of anti-tax evasion legislation by reforming the regulations that implement it.
Democrats Abroad, in collaboration with other organisations of overseas Americans, supports a Safe Harbor for Americans abroad from FATCA reporting, also known as the Same Country Exception, which, when added to the FATCA implementation rules, will preserve the original intent of FATCA to fight illegal tax avoidance by Americans using overseas accounts to hide assessable earnings from the IRS, but will alleviate the useless reporting by overseas-resident citizens and their banks of ordinary accounts used to pay bills and save for the future.