Many thanks to all those who have made submissions to our 2019 Non-Resident Taxation Research Project over the two week study period. The survey was closed at midnight on Sunday February 3, 2019. We look forward to publishing a full report on the findings of the research by the end of February.
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Democrats Abroad is launching our 2019 Non-Resident Taxation Research Project to generate information we will use to advocate for reforms to relieve the burden of tax, banking, financial account reporting, securities and other laws that discriminate against Americans living abroad. Please contribute to our research by filling out this questionnaire. It will be open for submissions for 2 weeks, closing at midnight US EDT on Sunday February 3, 2019.
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If you follow the work of Democrats Abroad advocating for tax relief for Americans abroad you know that a major milestone was reached in December 2018 with the introduction of the Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad Act, a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would enact a switch from the current U.S. system of Citizenship based taxation (CBT) to the global norm of Residency based taxation (RBT). The bill wasn’t perfect, but it does provide an excellent framework for building a proposal for enacting RBT that can be embraced by members of Congress on all sides of politics. Our work on such a proposal continues from where we left off last year and we need your help to execute our advocacy program.
Congress has a very poor understanding of the Americans abroad community, and that probably goes double for the freshman members. In order to persuade them to relieve us of the onerous and unfair burden imposed by Citizenship based taxation we need to educate them about who we are and how we are suffering because of discriminatory tax policy.
To that end, Democrats Abroad announces the 2019 Non-Resident Taxation Research Project aimed at building a profile of the Americans abroad community and describing how we are impacted by the many ways U.S. tax, securities, banking and other laws cause us serious personal and financial hardship. We hope you will help by taking part in the research by preparing this questionnaire.
The questionnaire is comprehensive in its penetration into the many types of discrimination we Americans abroad face. It is divided into these main sections:
Non-resident citizen profile – demographic information describing who we are and where and how we live
Offshore Banking, Saving and Investing – compiling information about how we are impacted by financial account reporting requirements and the punitive tax treatment of savings, pension and investment programs.
U.S. Banking, Saving and Investing – compiling information about how our non-residency impacts our ability to manage our U.S.-based financial affairs
U.S. Tax Filing – recording our experiences managing the tax consequences of offshore residency
U.S. Tax Compliance – recording our experience maintaining compliance with U.S. tax filing obligations, including our experience with the programs set up to help non-filing Americans come into tax compliance.
Social Security Benefit impairment – gathering information from those whose U.S. Social Security benefits are unjustly reduced because a portion of their working life was spent abroad employed by organizations that don’t participate in the U.S. Social Security system.
Tax Cuts & Jobs Act impacts – for the first time generating data on how Americans abroad who have ownership in foreign companies are enduring the two new taxes imposed upon them by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
Yes, we are asking about QUITE A LOT!!
It is a lengthy questionnaire. We estimate it will take 10 minutes to prepare.
But all questions are OPTIONAL.
We trust you will consider the tax, banking, investing and securities laws and regulations that have the most harmful impact on you and put your effort into responding to the questions that relate to those matters.
Please send us any questions or comments – [email protected]
Thanks in advance for your support with this research and for our advocacy work generally.
If you are interested in getting more frequent updates on our expat tax advocacy work, including advice on our grassroots Congressional outreach campaigns, please click here to sign up.
If you are interested in donating to support the work of DA in advocating for reforms to U.S. tax and banking laws you can do so by clicking here.
Thanks again!
Democrats Abroad Taxation Task Force