Today, we’re launching a survey to get a true picture of the burdens that Citizenship Based Taxation places on Americans abroad. We’ll collect your experiences and your stats, and then we’ll take them to the Hill.
We have listened to your issues: fear of repercussions if you haven’t filed for years; substantial fees for paying an accountant to do your U.S. taxes, even though the majority do not owe anything; double or punitive taxation with your foreign retirement or savings plans; and potentially unreasonable penalties for making a mistake.
Your experience is not as uncommon as you might think. We want to prove it. Take our survey to help show the real picture of Americans abroad.
Why is this survey so important?
Over the years, Democrats Abroad has produced well-regarded, insightful research to aid our advocacy work on taxation (and overseas voting as well).
Along with a number of other organizations representing overseas Americans, Democrats Abroad is working very hard to persuade Congress to include Residency Based Taxation in its comprehensive tax reform package. With the information gathered from the survey, we will be able to clearly show the issues (and the unintended consequences) non-resident Americans face with the current tax code.
We can’t do it without your help, so check your tax files (if you have them) and click here to take our survey and share your experience with us this week.
Please contact Carmelan Polce on [email protected] with questions, and please feel free to .
THANK YOU for your support for this research and our tax advocacy work!
DEMOCRATS ABROAD TAXATION TASK FORCE
Julia Bryant – ex officio (Czech Republic)
DeeDee Gierow (Sweden)
Carmelan Polce – Chair (New York and Australia)
Michael Ramos (Australia)
Joe Smallhoover (France)
Orlando Vidal (United Arab Emirates)
PS: Wondering what this is all about? Explanations below.
Visit http://www.democratsabroad.org/taxation for more info and to sign up for updates from the Taxation Task Force (limited to DA members only). We promise to email only when there is important news to report.
Citizenship Based Taxation:
The U.S. is the only country that taxes all citizens, including non-residents, on their worldwide income - with the possible exceptions of Eritrea and North Korea. This system of citizenship based taxation obligates Americans living abroad to file tax returns on income generated overseas as well as in the U.S., and to report the accounts they have in foreign financial institutions.
Residency Based Taxation (RBT):
Citizens of a nation with RBT pay tax on income they generate in the place they live. If they live abroad and generate income abroad, that income is taxed only by the country where it is earned and not by the nation of their citizenship.
If the U.S. were to establish a system of Residency Based Taxation:
● Non-resident Americans would not be subject to U.S. income tax on their foreign source income. They would be responsible for taxes on income generated in their country of residence to their country of residence.
● Non-resident Americans would be subject to U.S. withholding tax on their U.S. source income, Social Security, rents, royalties, etc.
More information can be found here.