The Democrats Abroad Taxation Task Force visited Congressional offices, the State Department, and the White House from September 9-13 to continue conversations on tax reform for Americans abroad. This report serves as a summary of the meetings attended.
Overall achievements from the door knock included:
- 49 meetings over 5 days
- 32 Democratic offices
- 13 Republican offices
- 31 House offices
- 13 Senate offices
- 3 non-Congressional meetings
- participated in tax briefing more here
Top issues discussed focused on bipartisan, realistic, and passable tax proposals that could be included in the tax bill due to pass in 2025 including:
- Legislative recommendations from the National Taxpayer Advocate's previous year's Report to Congress eg. MSP 8 & MSP 9
- H.R. 5432 Tax Simplification for Americans Abroad Act
- Excluding small and medium sized American business owners abroad from GILTI tax and reporting
- Combining the FATCA & FBAR forms into one form
- Legislative and regulatory solutions to tax compliance issues for non-US pensions and savings accounts (especially the Australian Superannuation, UK SIPPs, and Canadian TFSAs)
- Phantom currency gains on remortgages for homes owned outside the U.S. by Americans abroad
Ongoing education and long-term proposals discussed included:
- Residency Based Taxation
- Financial access issues inside and outside the US
- Expanding Direct File to include Americans abroad for the 2025 tax filing season
- Re-opening Tax Attachés abroad
- Ensuring changes to the Child Tax Credit do not exclude American families abroad in future legislation
Pictures from meetings appear below:
Democrats Abroad Taxation Task Force meeting with Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-08)
Democrats Abroad Taxation Task Force meeting with Rep. Don Beyer (VA-08)
Democrats Abroad Taxation Task Force meeting with Rep. Dina Titus (NV-01)
Democrats Abroad Taxation Task Force meeting with Senator Bob Casey's office (PA)
Democrats Abroad Taxation Task Force meeting with Senator Chris Coon's office (DE)
Democrats Abroad Taxation Task Force meeting with Senator Catherine Cortez Masto's office (NV)
The Taxation Task Force will return to Washington DC early next year to continue conversations with Congressional offices to ensure our bills and proposals are prioritized for inclusion in the 2025 must-pass tax bill.
5 things you can do to help us fix the tax and financial access issues for Americans abroad:
- Register to vote at votefromabroad.org and cast your ballot in this year's critical election (do it quickly, deadlines are imminent!)
- Sign up for the Taxation Task Force mailing list, bookmark our emails from [email protected], and take action everytime we email you. (We don't send emails unless absolutely necessary, so it's worth reading when we do email you!)
- Contact the IRS and tell them to stop the PFIC reporting regime (deadline is November 19!)
- Ask your House rep to co-sponsor the Americans Abroad Simplified Filing Bill
- Ask your House rep to join the Americans Abroad Caucus