THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
On October 9, President-elect Trump said that his vision for the United States "includes Americans abroad: I support ENDING the double-taxation of overseas Americans!" American Citizens Abroad (ACA), an advocacy group promoting the interests of American expats, has launched a 100-day campaign to remind him of this promise.
The campaign, ACA says, is "aimed at enacting President-elect Trump’s pledge to end the onerous double taxation of US citizens living and working overseas. This promise can be kept by reforming US tax policy to adopt Residence-Based Taxation (RBT). Having previously demonstrated that adopting RBT is revenue neutral, ACA will work with its thousands of individual members and a broad, bi-partisan coalition of incoming Administration officials, Congressional representatives, legislative staff, tax experts, and economists to finally achieve this goal when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) is brought up for renewal."
The group’s Executive Director, Marylouise Serrato, said, "ACA is moving quickly to ensure that following through on the promise to deliver tax reform for overseas Americans is among the priorities for the incoming Administration. Members of Congress and their staff rely on ACA research as they consider draft legislation for RBT. Our research shows that adopting RBT can easily be done by modifying existing tax provisions without costing the US Treasury a dime.
"Working with champions in Congress on both sides of the aisle, ACA has demonstrated that overseas Americans actually help grow the US economy, supporting trade, investment, export of American goods and services, improving US competitiveness and spreading democratic values across the globe. Enacting RBT is not only common sense – it’s good business."
Charles Bruce, ACA Legal Counsel and Chairman of the American Citizens Abroad Global Foundation (ACAGF) added, "If there is one piece of legislation that can be a bi-partisan, simple, easy win for the new Administration and Congress, it’s RBT. It fits comfortably alongside an extension of TCJA. It’s easy to draft as pro-forma language was already introduced in the 115th Congress – no need to come up with novel approaches."
As part of the 100-day campaign, ACA will make visits to key staff on the House Ways and Means Committee, Senate Finance Committee and Joint Committee on Taxation. It will also publish more research "demonstrating RBT is revenue neutral and expanding our coalition of advocates for fair, common-sense tax policy".
You can learn more and join the campaign by contacting marylouise.serrato@americansabroad.org, +1 202 322 8441.