Download a template that you can use:
On August 25, 2021 the Senate Finance Committee (specifically Senators Wyden, Brown and Warner) released their proposed international tax reforms. The release included both the draft legislation and the explanation.
Predictably the proposals are very damaging to the community of Americans abroad. I am not going to discuss the technicalities of this. (There is a discussion on Twitter here.) Suffice it to say that by focussing ONLY on multi-nationals (as has been their pattern) they have ignored the impact on INDIVIDUALS of the existing GILTI rules and their proposed changes to the GILTI rules.
To put it simply, the Senate Finance Committee, under the leadership of Chairman Wyden, continues to ignore individual Americans abroad and not afford them the dignity and respect to which American citizens are entitled. Congress continues to erode the value of your US citizenship. Many of you are being forced to choose between remaining an American citizen and being able to support your families and plan for retirement. (While this continues, Democrats Abroad shamefully continues to scour the world attempting to secure your vote for Democratic candidates.)
You might think these proposals affect only those who operate small business corporations and therefore don’t affect you. You are wrong!! Although these specific proposals appear to impact only those with small business corporations, the Senate Finance proposals should be understood to be an attack on ALL Americans abroad. Although you may not have a small business corporation your children may want to have one. Your neighbor may have one. It is time for Americans abroad to come together as a community and understand that an attack on one group of Americans abroad is an attack on the value of American citizenship and therefore an attack on ALL Americans abroad. This particular proposal may not have attacked you personally. But the next one could (and probably will).
In other words:
The US extraterritorial tax regime AKA citizenship-based taxation is a problem that is far bigger than the problems of any one individual!
SEAT has made a submission to the Senate Finance Committee.
I am asking each of you to take the time to make a submission too. We have made it easy for you. We have provided a tetmplate (see top of this post) that you can use or modify to make your views known.
How You Can Submit A Statement
SEAT has prepared a template (see top of this post) to assist you in drafting your submission to the Committee. Download and edit it to add your name and address as well as any further detail you’d like to provide the Committee on how U.S. extraterritorial taxation is affecting you personally. Personal stories have much more impact than form letters, so we encourage you to edit the template. It is very important that the Committee receive a large number of submissions, so even if you don’t want to add your own story, please make a submission.
Email the edited word file (see top of this post) to: internationaltax@finance.senate.gov
The deadline for submission is September 3, 2021. You are asked to email the submission (use the word document) to: internationaltax@finance.senate.gov
In conclusion:
I am asking you to send a submission regardless of whether you have a small business corporation. At the end of the template you are asked to express your (presumed) view that:
The problems of Americans abroad can be solved ONLY by the United States ending its traditional practice of citizenship-based taxation and moving to residence-based taxation (like the rest of the world).
SEAT continues to work hard for you. I am asking that you invest a few minutes in sending your submission to Senate Finance. It is truly an investment in your American citizenship. It is an investment in the community of Americans abroad.
Best regards and stay safe!
SEAT per John Richardson
Can the committee not draft legislation that makes a distinction between individuals and multi-nationals? That seems to be the real issue to me.
I am trying to use your template to submit and can’t get your system to work. I have therefore printed a copy and hope to be able to email the finance senate that way as I feel strongly that it is hugely unfair for Americans like me who live abroad and are retired and will never return to America should have to pay tax to a country I have left. Judy Sale
Thank you for doing that, Judy.
Fyi – for some reason the links to the template stopped working. So we’ve embedded the Word file. Hopefully now no one else will have problems to download it.
Hello,
This is all well and good but what if I also just want to point out that I am just a low income worker who moved abroad many years ago. Started a family and continue to work and save money for my retirement, that is coming up soon, and I am afraid. I am afraid that the small amount that I have saved for the past 35 years might be stolen form me from my mother country in my time of need to pay for something that I have never used or benefited from or accessed? I am by no means rich by anyone’s standard. I have a small nest egg to help me along when I hang up my towel and boots. I am scared to death that it’s going to just disappear, by me being locked out of my fund that I earned and collected over 35 years of working and paying my local and federal taxes to the country in which I reside. I can’t sleep at night these days. I feel hot breath down my neck, a choking feeling like a noose reading for the tightening. I have anxiety. I need help.