Tax reform will happen when enough Americans abroad reach out to their members of Congress and demand it — that’s why we’re asking for your help.

Congress does not hear from enough of us who are irate about the way Americans overseas are treated under the U.S. tax code, so they fail to act. You can help change that.

Please pick up the phone on June 15, call your Members of Congress, and let them know it’s time for fair tax policy for Americans overseas.

New to calling? No problem. All the information you need is in this advocacy guide, including:

• How to establish who are your Members of Congress
• How to contact them
• Scripts for what to say in your phone call
• Language to put into written communication - digital or old school

RSVP HERE to let us know you are participating.

Use THIS LINK to tell us who your contacted and how it went.

Questions? Contact us at any time at: [email protected]

Democrats Abroad has written to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig about the proposal included, amongst many other measures, in the American Familes Plan Tax Compliance Agenda, to introduce reporting, by banks in the United States and not in the United States, on total cash inflows and outflows of the accounts of U.S. taxpayers.  For Americans abroad we fear it will expand the bank lockout, further restrict access to savings and investment vehicles and exacerbate stresses in dual-national families.  You can download our letter here.

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On Wednesday May 12 the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures (the key tax writing subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee) held a hearing on Funding our Nation's Priorities:  Reforming the Tax Code's Advantageous Treatment of the Wealthy.  Democrats Abroad has submitted this statement for the hearing record and is following up the comments and recommendations in our statement during hearings with Ways and Means Committee members.  We encourage tax reform advocates to make a submission of their own.

Democrats Abroad has published a submission in response to the Senate "Creating Opportunities Through a Fairer Tax Code" hearing.  Our submission outlines our tax reform priorities and recommendations for inclusion in the American Jobs Plan/Made in America Tax Plan and American Families Plan.  Click here to download our submission.   Supporters of Tax reform for Americans abroad are encouraged to submit their own statement.  Information is here.

Democrats Abroad has published a submission in response to an invitation from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to provide comment on the introduction of the new beneficial ownership reporting requirement which was enacted in the Corporate Transparency Act of 2021 (CTA).  Congress expects the new law to form an important part of the IRS tax enforcement system cracking down on the use of foreign financial accounts in tax secrecy jurisdictions to commit financial crimes.  Democrats Abroad believes the implementation of mandatory reporting of (currently anonymous) shell companies gives us an opening to ask for foreign financial account reporting modifications to ease the burden on Americans abroad.  Click here to download our submission.

Having a Congress that understands and supports the Americans abroad community is essential to building critical Congressional support for our reform recommendations. That's why we are working to increase membership in the Congressional Americans Abroad Caucus - a group of Congressional leaders motivated to address the unique issues of the Americans abroad community.

Invite your Congressperson to join the American Abroad Caucus TODAY.

Find a script, ways to get in touch and more details about the caucus and our caucus membership drive.  CLICK HERE if you are on a handheld device.  CLICK HERE to download our Americans Abroad Caucus Membership Drive Participation Guide. 

On Friday 23 April the IRS published a bulletin describing the 2 million payments they distributed in the 6th batch of Economic Impact Payments (EIPs) from the American Rescue Plan Act.  This is the U.S. Government's 3rd round of EIPs since the pandemic started: EIP1 = $1200 (Mar 2020); EIP2 = $600 (Dec 2020); EIP3 = $1400 (Feb 2021).  The IRS 23 April bulletin is copied in full at the very end of this post.

Democrats Abroad continues to hear from eligible Americans abroad waiting for their EIP(s) and wanting to contact the IRS.  The IRS has published this information about how to contact them from abroad.  The International Call Center contact numbers listed at this website, open Monday through Friday from 6am to 11pm Eastern time, are: 

Tel: 267-941-1000 (not toll-free)
Fax: 681-247-3101 (for international tax account issues only)

You have the best chance of being near the front of the queue if you begin dialing at 6am US Eastern time, though many have reported long wait times even if they started dialing early.

You might also try to reach the IRS with a question through your member of the House of Representatives.  Your Representative has constituent services officers, usually in the district office, to handle a range of constituent issues.  You can request that your Representative's Constituent Advocate access the Congressional Liaison to the IRS on your behalf.  You may be able to get in contact with the IRS in this way, though, again, many have reported to us that their outreach to constituent services staff was fruitless.  It's no magic bullet, but it is worth a try.  Here's how:

1.  If you do not know who your Representative is then use this link to find the name of your Representative by entering the zip code of your voting address.  

2.  Once you have the name of your Representative you can use this link to find the name of their Constituent Services Officers/Constituent Advocates.  Put your Rep's last name in the Search bar at the top of the page and hit return.  The search will produce a list of ALL of your Representatives staff members and their titles.  The staff member you are searching for will be identified as Constituent Advocate or Constituent Services Officer.  The phone number and email address of the Constituent Advocate is listed next to the person's name. 

On March 25 the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on "International Tax Policy and the Impact on American Workers, Jobs and Investment".  Democrats Abroad provided written testimony to the Committee hearing to raise the issues Americans abroad face in complying with U.S. taxation and financial account reporting compliance.  You can download the Democrats Abroad submission here.  You will note that we have joined our colleague organizations advocating on behalf of the Americans abroad community in asking for hearings on U.S. Taxation and Americans abroad and a switch to Residency Based Taxation.

Democrats Abroad continues to receive messages with questions about pandemic aid and how to access it.  If you have questions we encourage you to read on and also to:

1. review our past postings about accessing the first two aid programs and about how to cash a U.S. government check from abroad;
2. view a recording of our webinar about the second round of COVID aid; and
3. consider attending one of these upcoming tax webinars being hosted by DA Country Committees. 

The next (third) round of pandemic aid for individuals is coming as part of the American Rescue Plan, which was passed in the Senate this past weekend.  The bill is widely expected to be passed by the House and signed by President Biden by the end of the week commencing Monday March 8. 

We think this is the best reporting on the American Rescue Plan aid to individuals, or Economic Impact Payment 3 (EIP3) e.g. eligibility; how to get the $1,400 payment; how and when it will come.  Read on for further advice on positioning yourself to receive EIP3 as quickly as possible.

In line with the Democrats Abroad 2020 outreach to Treasury Sec Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Rettig regarding the delivery of pandemic relief to Americans abroad, and with the American Rescue Plan with its $1,400 pandemic aid payment expected to be signed by President Biden later this week, Democrats Abroad has written to Biden-Harris Treasury Sec Janet Yellen requesting changes to improve both aid delivery efficiency and agency engagement with the Americans abroad community.

The IRS announced on 16 February 2021 that all first and second round Economic Impact Payments (EIP) have now been issued.*  Get My Payment, the online IRS platform for taxpayers to track EIPs, was last updated on Jan. 29, 2021, to reflect the final payments and will not be updated again for EIP1 or EIP2. 

What if you are still waiting for your payment?

Further to the publication of our October research into the experience of Americans abroad access the aid in the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act Democrats Abroad has scheduled a series of meetings with lawmakers in a position to help us implement our recommendations to improve the delivery of aid such as the economic impact payments.  

We have also written to the U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, IRS Commissioner Rettig, Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Americans Abroad Caucus co-chair Carolyn Maloney, Senate Finance Committee Chair Grassley, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Neal, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Wyden and House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Brady to share the research findings and recommendations.  Download the correspondence here.

We will report out on our meetings after next week.

DEMOCRATS ABROAD TAXATION TASK FORCE

THANK YOU to all who made submissions to this research into the experience of Americans abroad accessing the aid in the CARES Act.  A mighty 4,363 Americans abroad participated in the research, which will result in robust findings.  Democrats Abroad will publish a report on the research by mid November then use it to support our recommendations for improving access to the aid in a future COVID pandemic aid package for Americans abroad.

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This year the Democrats Abroad Taxation Task Force has addressed the concerns of thousands of Americans abroad related to the financial aid available to eligible U.S. citizens under the COVID pandemic stimulus bill passed in March.  Our experience indicates the resources of the IRS fell far short of serving the needs of eligible Americans abroad.  (This fact is particularly vexing today, 15 October, the IRS extension deadline for U.S. tax filing and foreign financial account reporting.) 

Today we are launching an Americans Abroad and the CARES Act research project to compile data to describe your experience accessing the aid and make recommendations to the IRS for improving the delivery of the next aid package.

Please take the survey yourself.  Please share the survey with other Americans abroad and please post it on your social media platforms.  It will be open for submissions from 15 to 31 October 2020.  We expect to publish our findings in mid-November.

More than ten weeks have passed since Congress passed the CARES Act, providing, among other things, aid to low income Americans to supplement their household income during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. According the House Ways and Means Committee the IRS has sent out nearly 160 million Economic Impact Payments (EIPs) – some by direct deposit (120 million), some by check sent by traditional mail, (35 million) and some by mailed Visa debit card (4 million).

If you are eligible for an EIP but have not received it, it might still be coming.

The DemsAbroad Tax Team had another productive week of meetings with Congressional tax writers in Washington DC the week commencing 16 September 2019.  We are continuously reminded about the importance of turning up in person to present the serious personal and financial problems that U.S. tax, banking, securities and other laws cause Americans abroad.  Not only have we - the many dedicated individuals and organizations advocating on behalf of Americans abroad - built important relationships with the members who are championing our cause (Maloney (D-NY), Holding (R-NC), Titus (D-NV), Raskin (D-MD) and Beyer (D-VA)), but we’ve firmed up our relationship with the House Ways and Means Committee (W&MC) which is so critical to progressing a bill to enact Residency Based Taxation (RBT).

RBT Bill 

We had a very interesting discussion with the W&MC team working on expat taxation legislation.  While we expected their work to be farther advanced than it is, we now have a clearer understanding of their approach to shaping the bill which has as its foundation the administration of the law once it is in place.  Their emphasis is on ensuring the law can work for the many categories of Americans abroad:  short to medium to decades-long expats; short term corporate placements; love exiles; aid workers; retirees; students of all kinds; healthcare exiles; adventurers; pensioners; and more.  We were pleased to offer our on-going advice and feedback on the design elements of the RBT bill and we are determined to keep pushing the work along.

Outreach to Congress

Aside from the in-the-weeds work on the bill, there is of course more work to be done educating members on the problems we need addressed.  As you know, our focus is on persuading members in the all-important W&MC that our problems are serious and urgent.  Aside from the five members noted earlier, we also met in the office of these W&MC members: Rep Larson (D-CT), Rep Murphy (D-FL); Rep Walorski (R-IN), Rep Pascrell (D-NJ) and Rep Westrup (R-OH).  We door-knocked 25 other W&MC members and passed our Leave Behind Pack to the legislative staff.  Our meetings on the Senate side included Sen Brown (D-OH) and Sen Portman (R-OH), both serving on the Senate Finance Committee, as well as Sen Paul (R-KY), known for his determination to block reforms to U.S. tax treaties critical to our experience navigating the intersection of U.S. and residence country taxation.

We find that the most compelling cases we present are those that profile the constituents of the offices we visit navigating these challenges: the enormous complexity and cost of U.S. tax compliance; bank lockouts; double-taxation of pensions; the obstacles to ordinary investing; and the existential threat the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act “transition taxes” pose for small to medium sized business owners. 

To that end, we continue to encourage all Americans abroad suffering from the burdens of U.S. taxation to call and/or write to your elected representatives about your experience.  Use our language or use your own.  If there’s any chance you can get to Capitol Hill yourself, then deliver your message in person!  The Senate and House offices are open to all – take advantage of it!  Find your members’ office address, walk right in (after passing through ground-floor metal detectors), introduce yourself, ask for an aide who has time to speak to a constituent for 10 minutes and then tell your story.

What's Next

You can be sure that we will be back on Capitol Hill at least one more time before the end of the calendar year, working in concert with all the other Americans abroad organizations to make the case for a switch to RBT and for other legislative remedies that address the serious discrimination we suffer as non-resident citizens.

Please send comments and questions to [email protected].

Democratically yours,

Democrats Abroad Taxation Task Force

On Tuesday 17 September Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY12) and Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08) introduced two bills to provide support and relief to Americans Abroad.  They are the Commission on Americans Living Overseas Act and the Overseas Americans Financial Access Act.  Democrats Abroad endorses these bills and thanks Rep. Maloney and Rep. Beyer for their on-going interest in and support for the Americans abroad community.

Commission on Americans Abroad Act

The Commission on Americans Abroad Act, first introduced by Rep. Maloney and former New York Rep. Charlie Rangel in the 113^th Congress, would create a commission to establish the impact of U.S. laws and regulations on Americans living abroad and make reform recommendations.  You can read about it here.

Overseas Americans Financial Access Act

The Overseas Americans Financial Access Act, first introduced by Rep. Maloney in the last Congress, provides an exemption for Americans abroad from all Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) reporting for the accounts we hold in the countries where we live.  FATCA was created to discourage and apprehend Americans using foreign financial accounts to hide money from the IRS; it was never intended to track the accounts we use in the places where we live to pay our bills and save for the future.  You can read about it here.

Democrats Abroad is in Washington DC this week (18-20 September) for more talks about expat tax reform and will be discussing these bills in our meetings.  Expat tax reform activists are encouraged to participate in our Congressional CallStorm this week to tell our elected representatives that we need relief from the unjust burden that the U.S. tax code and other laws and regulations place on Americans abroad.

Please send comments and questions to [email protected]