We invite Americans living outside the US to participate in a survey about their experiences of being a US taxpayer filing from abroad.

Why a survey?
There are lots of misunderstandings about what the “average” American abroad looks like. Our aim is to do as much as we can to chip away at this, through thousands of survey responses, which will be used to show the real picture of one part of life for millions of Americans living overseas.

Democrats Abroad has invested a great deal of time making Congress aware of the issues we as non-resident taxpayers face filing from abroad - the complexity of the forms; the cost of preparing reports and filings (even when no taxes are owed); the stress of preparing accurate filings to declare overseas income and accounts given the penalties for filing errors; the tax code provisions that result in the double or punitive taxation of foreign source income; etc.

Why now?
For the first time since the 1980’s, the GOP-led Congress stands a chance of moving a comprehensive package of tax reforms to the floor. Democrats Abroad – and many of our peer groups – are responding aggressively to this opportunity to present Residency Based Taxation as a reform that should be included this year. Congress is expected to spend September and October working to raise the debt ceiling and come to terms on the Budget that will go into effect 1 October, which means that the time to act is NOW. Launching the survey today means that our report will reach Washington by Monday, October 23, when both houses have returned from Autumn recess.

What then?
We’ll review thousands of responses, analyze feedback and develop a summary report, which will be available on our website this autumn. Then we'll take it to the Hill. 

We’ll share these findings with the Senate Finance and House & Means Committees, working on the tax reform package. The Taxation Task Force is planning meetings to discuss the research and our reform recommendations on Capitol Hill in November, prior to the Thanksgiving recess. From there, the report will continue to serve as a critical reference point as we continue to advocate for important reforms to the US tax code.

Go to the survey! 

Thank you for taking the time to prepare your submission and for supporting Democrats Abroad's tax advocacy work. If you'd like to join our campaign to fight for RBT, download our campaign materials and get started! And if you are not a member of DA, please consider joining today.