Democrats Abroad celebrates International Women's Day this year with hope for the future and pride for what we have accomplished. 

This week the Democrats Abroad Hispanic Caucus’ Alison (Czech Republic) and Michael (Australia) spoke with Dr. Matthew Mendez, professor, author and expert on analyzing representation among Latinos and undocumented immigrants.

It is with heavy hearts that we share the very sad news of Arian Ardie's passing.

Democrats Abroad would like to thank everyone who completed our 2019 Non-Resident Taxation Survey. This information will be used to advocate for congressional reform to relieve burdens of taxes, banking, reporting, securities and laws that specifically discriminate against Americans living abroad.

DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement on Governor Ralph Northam:

Democrats Abroad, the largest organization for Americans living overseas, fully supports the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and is calling on state legislatures across the U.S. to move toward its ratification.

"When we have unity of purpose, that’s how we win." 

In an upbeat address in London last week, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez saluted Democrats Abroad for mobilizing record numbers of overseas voters in the 2018 midterms.

Democrats Abroad welcomes the introduction of H.R. 7358, the Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad Act. H.R. 7358 is not a perfect bill and, coming on the eve of adjournment, it cannot be given serious consideration or debate. That said, it is a milestone for advocates of a switch from the current U.S. system of Citizenship Based Taxation to the globally-accepted norm of Residency Based Taxation (RBT), and raises to attention important issues that Congress must address with hearings in the 116th Congress. 

The U.S. currently taxes its citizens on their worldwide income, even if they are living abroad.  Under RBT, Americans living outside of the U.S. would continue to report their U.S.-sourced income to the Internal Revenue Service but would report income generated in their country of residence – and pay tax on it – only to the local tax authority. Americans living abroad would no longer report income generated in their country of residence to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

Democrats Abroad has supported a switch to RBT since we were founded over 50 years ago.  Over the last two years Democrats Abroad worked in collaboration with other organizations representing Americans abroad to lobby Congress in support of RBT.  We are pleased that we now have a framework for building a RBT model that we believe could achieve these important things –

• facilitate participation by those living abroad temporarily, for decades or for an indeterminate period of time;
• include provisions for all Americans abroad to transition into “non-residency” status for tax purposes;
• be revenue-neutral to the federal government; and
• contain anti-tax avoidance mechanisms to prevent abuse by U.S. taxpayers who are not bona fide residents abroad.

We look forward to working with the 116th Congress to develop and introduce a bona fide RBT bill with public hearings into issues impacting Americans abroad ahead of discussions on specific reforms such as the introduction of RBT.

Democrats Abroad and others have kept potential RBT bill co-sponsors apprised so that they are not at a standing start in January 2019.  We are committed to picking up where we left off and carrying on with our work to make the U.S. tax code fairer to Americans living abroad. This not only includes working to introduce RBT, but also to reform the GOP Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to include “transition tax” relief for American owners of small to medium sized businesses abroad and to exempt from FATCA reporting the financial accounts of bona fide Americans abroad in our countries of residence.

Democrats Abroad is undertaking urgent efforts to ensure that all overseas voters who participated in this year’s Midterm Elections have their votes counted. The organization conducts extensive outreach to support overseas voting for all US elections and has identified numerous issues based on feedback from voters around the world.

The House district map turns more blue each day as absentee ballots are counted and tight elections called. Those last votes flipping races? Those are ours! 

Voting from abroad is not always easy. But you did it. This year hundreds of thousands of Americans abroad persisted and voted. Democrats Abroad was right there with you. I'm so proud of all the work that our volunteers did - calling voters, answering questions online, going to schools, companies, and events across the world to help you vote.

Our work is not done yet.

The tight races in Arizona, Florida and Georgia have highlighted the value of our votes from abroad, but they have also highlighted the Republican Party's attempts to stand in the way of counting ballots. Democrats Abroad, state parties, and the DNC are fighting back. Here's what we're doing:

• We're helping Arizona voters abroad make sure their votes are "cured". This most often means checking to make sure a mailed in signature matches a voter's signature on record. Proactive outreach helps make sure these blue votes are counted before the deadline passes to fix them.
• We're helping Florida voters abroad check their ballot status and navigate problems. Our voting experts are working the phones, explaining federal law and pushing to make sure each vote is counted.
• We’re also fighting to make sure every ballot is counted in Georgia, where we’re working with lawyers and the local voter protection team to ensure counties adhere to federal laws for overseas voters.

If you're a voter in Arizona, Florida or Georgia, here's how you can make sure your vote counts. If you'd like to help reach voters from these states, consider joining our phonebanking campaigns this week.

And if you're wondering just how well we've done this election, we flipped:

The US House of Representatives! 

Thank you again!