Development of the Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad Act Legislation

How was this legislative proposal developed and how was ACA work important to this process? 

Congressman Holding has long been a proponent of tax reform for Americans living and working overseas. He and his staff have been working on draft legislation since December of last year when it became apparent that some form of residency-based taxation would not be added to the recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. ACA, together with other overseas organizations – AmChams (such as American Chambers of Commerce in Asia Pacific APCAC), Association of Americans Resident Overseas, Democrats Abroad, and Republicans Overseas – regularly met and provided Congressman Holding with input, data and suggestions on tax law changes, informing and otherwise educating him and his staff on the critical tax and compliance problems facing Americans living and working overseas. 

Documents such as ACA’s side-by-side “vanilla” approach to RBT and the revenue estimation work produced by District Economics Group (DEG), under contract with ACA to “score” RBT for revenue neutrality, as well as critical baseline data on the asset composition and size of the overseas community, were vitally important to development of the legislative proposal. All of this helped Congressman Holding’s office and the relevant tax-writing staffs on Capitol Hill working on development of the legislation.

Throughout the process, ACA maintained close relationships with the tax-writing committees, Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), Senate Finance Committee and House Ways & Means Committee. We met regularly with the tax-writing committees, legislators and directly with Congressman Holding’s office to build momentum for a bill. ACA’s presence in Washington, DC and ability to be a direct 24/7 resource for Congress and the various committees was undoubtedly a highly valuable asset.

Collectively the work of all the groups involved and stakeholders, such as, Americans for Tax Reform and others, was instrumental in getting this legislation drafted and introduced.