Download a template you can use here.
Did you know that there are members of the House Committee on Ways & Means who oppose taxation that “target[s] Americans with unfair taxes?” And who also oppose taxation that threatens “sovereign taxing rights?”
Sounds great, doesn’t it? As if change to the nationality-based U.S. extraterritorial tax system could be on its way….
But you would be mistaken. These members of Congress were not speaking about taxation by the United States. No, they were speaking only about taxation by other countries.
The hypocrisy of their postition appears to be lost on them.
Right now you have an opportunity to tell Congress what you think about that.
On 19 July 2023 the Ways & Means Tax Subcommittee held a hearing “Biden’s Global Tax Surrender Harms American Workers and Our Economy.”
You can view the hearing here.
The purpose of the hearing was to discuss the framework for worldwide corporate taxation currently subject to negotiation under the leadership of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Pillar 2 (Undertaxed Profits Rule or UTPR) was the principal focus of the hearing, but Pillar 1 (digital services taxes, or DSTs) was also discussed.
This hearing presents an opportunity to give the House Committee on Ways & Means your feedback on both (1) specifically, the hypocrisy of their position regarding unfair taxes, and (2) more generally, the impact of nationality-based U.S. extraterritorial tax policies on the lives of Americans who live outside of the United States.
SEAT has submitted a statement to the Committee. You can read it here. We encourage you to provide your own personal statement. Unless Congress hears from actual Americans living overseas, they will certainly continue to ignore the effects of U.S. extraterritorial tax policies on the lives of Americans around the globe. If you don’t know how to get started, you can download our template and edit it to fit your personal situation. Your submission must be received no later than Wednesday 2 August 2023 (by close of business Eastern time) – so don’t delay!
How You Can Submit A Statement
SEAT has prepared a template to assist you in drafting your submission to the Committee. Download and edit it as you see fit. 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.
Download the template here.
Once you’ve downloaded and edited the template, send it via email to: WMSubmission@mail.house.gov.
Be sure you have followed the submission guidelines at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ADVISORY_Tax-Subcommittee-July-19-2023.pdf. Specifically:
Please ATTACH your submission as a Microsoft Word document.
All submissions and supplementary materials must be submitted in a single document via email, provided in Word format and must not exceed a total of 10 pages. Please indicate the title of the hearing as the subject line in your submission. […] The name, […] address, [and] telephone numbers of [the person making the submission] must be included in the body of the email. Please exclude any personal identifiable information in the attached submission.
Again, your submission must be received by the Committee no later than Wednesday 2 August 2023.
Sent my submission this week. Thanks to Laura for doing this
Thank you!
I missed this one, but ICYMI, it appears congress continues to believe only the “wealthy” live overseas. Barbara Lee entered a wealth tax bill which hits expatriates and overseas bank account holders with additional reporting requirements as deemed by Treasury. They propose targeting those making 1000 times the multiple of assets greater than $50K. Of course, expats already have an unconstitutional exit tax. I suppose this piles on the absurdity. If this bill were part of law we could be assured it would harm more expats because the asset threshold would be lowered for cruelty sake.
Congress does not want to see itself as the creator of mass inequality. Demonizing “the other” is a convenient tool in the toolkit.
https://lee.house.gov/news/press-releases/reps-barbara-lee-summer-lee-jamaal-bowman-and-rashida-tlaib-introduce-oligarch-act-to-tax-extreme-wealth-and-combat-aristocracy
Zucman and Co doggedly add fuel to the anti-expat fire. They provide junk academic foolery for public gaslighting. Zucman co-authored a 2021 paper asserting the 90% (those of us not in the 1% of the uber rich) should be considered for extra auditing of FBARs under the belief gazillionaires are part of the lower asset threshold group and are genuine tax evaders. Those of us in the know realize the FBAR is not a tax document, but a weapon.
Zucman & Co love the legislative spotlight at the expense of overseas Americans.
https://gabriel-zucman.eu/files/GLRRZ2021.pdf
ICYMI, the exit tax could be dealt a blow under Moore v United States. Moore is a transition tax case that creates a fictive tax on unrealized gains, similar to the exit tax. Naturally, these are exclusive overseas taxes.
https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/news/supreme-court-takes-up-constitutional-challenge-to-tcja-transition-tax/
Oh, I forgot. The bill Barbara Lee proposed is titled: OLIGARCH Act of 2023. Belittling.