ACA in the News 2018
Financial Post (December 28, 2018)
Possible tax relief looming for U.S. citizens living in Canada
“In recent years, academics and various lobby groups, such as American Citizens Abroad, have argued that the U.S. should abandon its citizenship-based taxation policy."
Tax Notes International (December 24, 2018), published by Tax Analysts
U.S. House Bill Proposes Residency-Based Tax Regime
By: Amanda Athanasiou and Jennifer McLoughlin
“American Citizens Abroad supports the proposal as an 'extremely important first step,' said Charles M. Bruce, the group’s legal counsel. Ultimately the legislation needs to be revenue neutral and resistant to abuse, he said, adding that 'no one should be worse off than they are now.' "
MLEX US Tax Watch (November 6, 2018) a LexisNexis publication
MLex Reporter Paul Merrion highlights ACA’s work on tax reform for US citizens living and working overseas.
ACA’s letter to House Ways & Means published in Politico Morning Tax (scroll down to Quick Links to find the piece)
"Quick Links: U.S. citizens living, working abroad still pressing residency-based taxation."
American Expat Financial News Journal (November 4, 2018)
American expat group reiterates ire over Trump ‘Transition Tax’ at hearing
"The American Citizens Abroad has called on an influential U.S. congressional committee to end the current system of taxing U.S. expatriates on the basis of their citizenship, as part of the committee's planned revisions of last December’s sweeping tax reform bill."
Tax Notes International (October 29, 2018), published by Tax Analysts
Residence-Based Taxation: The Other Territoriality
By: Robert Goulder
“There have been several plans for RBT in the United States over the years. The best place to start is the plain-vanilla approach circulated last year by the advocacy group American Citizens Abroad (ACA)."
American Expat Financial News Journal (October 23, 2018)
American expat group reiterates ire over Trump ‘Transition Tax’ at hearing
"The American Citizens Abroad yesterday reiterated its strong objections to a key measure contained in President Trump’s recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, at an IRS and Treasury Department hearing."
Wealth Briefing (October 11, 2018)
Transition Tax Burden Still Looms Over US Expats
By: Tom Burroughes, Editor
"A group that advocates on issues such as the tax regime faced by expat Americans renews its call on legislators to ease the rules."
American Expat Financial News Journal (October 9, 2018)
Call for U.S. Treasury to fix 'Transition Tax' problems with 'de minimis rule'
By: Helen Burggraf
"The American Citizens Abroad, the main non-partisan Washington lobbying group representing American expats around the world, today urged the U.S. Treasury Department to introduce a so-called de minimis rule to its latest draft of new tax regulations, in order to address what it said were problems inherent in the legislation that, if not changed, would cause major problems for many U.S. citizens living abroad."
National Review (August 15, 2018)
It's Time to Free American Expats from Our Ludicrous Extraterritorial Tax System.
By: Kurt Couchman
"About 9 million Americans live abroad. Many have annual earnings below the $102,100 threshold. FATCA does far more harm than good, and legislation has been offered to repeal it. Even if more Americans were to seek their livelihoods abroad, the increased economic activity would more than offset any lost revenue. In fact, American Citizens Abroad’s “residency-based tax” concept can be revenue neutral even without these additional considerations. Of course, the main idea is to remove foolish barriers to flourishing, not to fixate on filling government coffers."
National Taxpayers Union Foundation (August 2018)
Relief Needed from Unaccountable Foreign Accounts Tax Law
By: Demian Brady, Jacob Plott
The advocacy group American Citizens Abroad has advocated for the adoption of a “same-country exemption.” This remedy will remove the FATCA burden from citizens living full-time in the country in which their FFI exists, freeing their day-to-day use account from FATCA scrutiny, and minimizing the lockout Americans abroad have faced from neighborhood banks.
Tax Notes International (July 16, 2018)
Citizens Abroad Among Thousands Facing Passport Loss Over Tax Debt
By: William Hoffman
“The loss of a passport can be far more challenging for citizens residing abroad than for domestic citizens because it could make them unemployable if their profession requires them to cross any borders."
More Americans are considering cutting their ties with the US — here's why
"In the haste to put together new tax legislation late last year, the U.S. government lost an opportunity to address the situation American expatriates face, according to Charles M. Bruce, legal counsel at American Citizens Abroad, an advocacy group.
"There really was no time and no oxygen to focus on something like this, Bruce said."
Tax Notes International (June 18, 2018)
Transition Tax Relief May Buy Time for Residency-Based Tax Bill
By: Andrew Velarde
“There is going to be an effort to change the rules from citizenship-based to residency-based [taxation],” said Charles Bruce, legal counsel for American Citizens Abroad. “[The relief] buys some time to let Congress catch up. Only big changes are going to solve the problem, because it’s not just repatriation tax — it’s also [global intangible low-taxed income]; it’s the passthrough rules that don’t work for Americans overseas. . . .By accident, they really clobbered Americans overseas with these provisions,” Bruce said.
More Foundation Fallout
"HELP FOR EXPATS? Rep. George Holding (R-N.C.) hopes to introduce a measure rolling out something akin to a territorial system for individuals, Tax Notes’ Dylan Moroses reports. Holding said his bill creating a residency-based system is currently getting looked at by the Joint Committee On Taxation, and acknowledged working with American Citizens Abroad — a group that has loudly lobbied for the U.S. to stop taxing citizens on their worldwide income."
International Investment (June 5, 2018)
Expat Americans given one-year business tax reprieve
"Charles Bruce, legal counsel of American Citizens Abroad said, 'It is frankly ridiculous. They should not be put through the same wringer as the largest US multinational corporations, making the same calculations and completing and filing exactly the same form.'"
"American Citizens Abroad said it is hoping smaller companies and tax payers will be removed from the levy altogether."
Financial Times (June 5, 2018)
Expat Americans given one-year reprieve on repatriation tax
“Groups such as American Citizens Abroad, an advocacy group in Washington, have long argued for a system of residency-based taxation rather than the current citizenship-based system.”
International Investment (April 25, 2018)
As US expat groups lobby, Washington lawmakers debate Trump tax bill
“ACA knows that that the Republican leadership appreciates that [the TCJA] was a ’miss’ so far as Americans abroad are concerned and, worse, that it did serious damage. They have said again and again that they want to put this right, and we know work is being done in members’ offices.”
ClearanceJobs.com (March 22, 2018)
The Tax Benefits and Drawbacks of Working Overseas
“(Income) is taxed in the foreign jurisdiction where the American lives,” said ACA’s Serrato. “Perhaps not taxed in the traditional manner as those living in the U.S.—some Middle Eastern countries do not have ‘income’ tax per se and use other measures to raise revenues in lieu of taxes, however, an American is still subject to this ‘tax.'”
The American (March-April 2018 Edition)
Taxing Americans Abroad - Congress Draws Breath
"With headline-grabbing tax reform out of the way, Congress appears ready to turn to the subject pf taxing Americans abroad, who are making for sensible changes...Switching to residency-based taxation for sure is possible and, in my view, trending towards likely. Now's the time for everyone to push hard. Now's the time for Congress to hold hearings where everything can be put on the table."
International Investment (February 12, 2018)
‘Accidental Americans’ in France looking to French gov’t for help
"Charles Bruce, a former tax counsel at the Senate finance committee who now serves as legal counsel to the ACA, and who splits spends part of his time living and working in Europe when not in Washington, told International Investment that the ACA is calling on Congress to hold hearings on the taxation of Americans abroad “early in the new year”, with changing the tax regime to one based on residency a priority.
“ACA will probably also ask the Treasury/IRS to provide thresholds below which people need not worry about the deemed repatriation hit,” he added, referring to the unexpected “controlled foreign corporations” tax that emerged in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act."
Financial Times (February 5, 2018)
Americans abroad hit by Trump’s new repatriation tax rules
"The good thing about this is that it really highlights that the taxation of Americans overseas is just not right,” Mr Bruce said. “The problem is that people don’t think about Americans overseas . . . There’s no congressman representing Americans in France.”