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Americans Abroad Caucus Co-Chairs Carolyn Maloney and Mick Mulvaney have shown support for exempting FATCA reporting of financial accounts in the country of residency for Americans living overseas.

After receiving input from organizations representing American citizens living and working overseas, Americans Abroad Caucus Co-Chairs, Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) are encouraging colleagues in the House to support a “Same Country Exemption” type ruling to alleviate some of the most pressing problems resulting from the recent implementation of the FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) legislation.

The Co-Chairs are circulating a letter to colleagues in the House for signature that will be sent to the Secretary of the Treasury, Jacob Lew and the IRS Commissioner, John Koskinen. This letter requests that the Treasury Department adopt recommendations from the Taxpayer Advocate to exclude from FATCA reporting financial accounts maintained by a financial institution in the country of which the US person is a bona fide resident. See extract from the letter below:

“On behalf of the roughly eight million American citizens who live abroad, we write to express our concerns regarding several tax reporting requirements imposed on U.S. citizens living abroad that have created the unintended consequence of limiting overseas Americans’ access to legitimate banking services. We respectfully request that the Treasury Department adopt a recent Taxpayer Advocate Service recommendation that Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) reporting exclude financial accounts maintained by a financial institution in the country of which the U.S. person is a bona fide resident.”

This exclusion for FATCA reporting mirrors the recommendation for “Same Country Exemption” that ACA, Inc. and other overseas organizations have long advocated. “Same Country Exemption” would allow Treasury to achieve the legislative goals of FATCA while allowing Americans who have need for overseas banking services to maintain financial accounts in the country in which they legitimately reside.

ACA, Inc. on the forefront of these issues and your representative in Washington, DC 24/7, has been key in advancing “Same Country Exemption” bringing it to the attention of the Legislature, the Taxpayer Advocate and the Americans Abroad Caucus.