AARO has written repeatedly to Congressional representatives, administration officials, government agencies and others advocating for your rights.
In our submissions we provide them with important information, ask for their support of certain legislation and advocate on overseas Americans’ issues in a wide range of areas, including Banking, FATCA/FBAR, Taxation, Citizenship and Social Security/Medicare. Below is a compilation of the more recent submissions, those written from January 2020 to the present.
Click on the links below to see the submissions in each area.
Banking
Letter to the Pensions and Tax Policy Director of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) on September 6, 2023, outlining priority changes that AARO would like to see added to a retirement or tax package to address the exclusion of overseas Americans from the financial system and their lack of access to savings vehicles and retirement plans.
Senate HELP Director/Retirement Legislation/Sept. 6, 2023
Letter to the Americans Abroad Caucus on November 29, 2022, asking the Caucus to address the exclusion of overseas Americans from the financial system and their lack of access to savings vehicles and retirement plans via the pending retirement legislation Secure Act 2.0 (H.R. 2954) and Earn Act (S. 4808). AARO also directed the Caucus to an article on the topic authored by AARO.
House Americans Abroad Caucus/Retirement Legislation/Nov. 29, 2022
Letter to the House Ways & Means Committee on November 29, 2022, asking the Committee to address the exclusion of overseas Americans from the financial system and their lack of access to savings vehicles and retirement plans via the pending retirement legislation Secure Act 2.0 (H.R. 2954) and Earn Act (S. 4808). AARO also directed the Committee to an article on the topic authored by AARO.
House Ways & Means/Retirement Legislation/Nov. 29, 2022
Follow-up letter to the Senate Finance Committee on November 21, 2022, regarding the pending retirement legislation, reminding them of our June 30, 2022 letter to them and informing the Committee of an article on the topic authored by AARO.
Senate Finance/Retirement Legislation/Nov. 21, 2022
Letter to the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Ways & Means Committee on November 21, 2022, regarding the pending retirement legislation Secure Act 2.0 (H.R. 2954) and EARN Act (S. 4808), requesting that, during the reconciliation of the House and Senate bills, provisions be added to reduce the financial exclusion of Americans abroad. AARO also informed them of an article on the topic authored by AARO.
House Ways & Means Chair/Retirement Legislation/Nov. 21, 2022
Letter to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) on July 15, 2022, regarding their pending retirement legislation Rise and Shine Act (S. 4353), urging them to make suitable modifications to it in order to reduce the financial exclusion that expats face in their retirement and investment accounts.
Senate HELP/Retirement Legislation/July 15, 2022
Letter to the Senate Finance Committee on July 30, 2022, regarding the pending retirement legislation which passed the House and moved to the Senate, Secure Act 2.0 (H.R. 2954), urging them to make suitable modifications in reconciliation in order to reduce the financial exclusion that expats face in their retirement and investment accounts.
Senate Finance/Retirement Legislation/June 30, 2022
Comment sent to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on February 14, 2022, recommending ways to streamline, modernize and update the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.
Letter to the Acting Commissioner of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service at the Department of the Treasury on March 12, 2021, asking the Department to offer non-resident Americans pre-paid debit cards as an option for their distribution of the stimulus payments under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
Treasury Department/Stimulus Debit Cards/March 12, 2021
FATCA / FBAR
Submission to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on October 9, 2023, in response to an invitation for comment by FinCEN on renewal, without change, of existing information collection requirements on FBAR saying the FBAR report is “not necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, nor does it have practical utility.”
Letter to French President Emmanuel Macron on November 30, 2022, in connection with his impending trip to the United States to visit President Biden, asking President Macron to address with him the difficulties of FATCA compliance by Americans living in France.
President Macron/FATCA/Nov.30, 2022.English
President Macron/FATCA/Nov.30, 2022.French
Submission to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on January 19, 2021, in response to an invitation for comments by FinCEN on whether its FBAR activities fulfill the agency's purposes, saying the FBAR report is “unnecessary, even counterproductive.”
Taxation
Amicus curiae brief jointly filed by AARO and Stop Extraterritorial American Taxation (SEAT) with the Supreme Court in relation to Charles G. Moore, et al. v. United States, concerning the retroactive imposition of transition taxes on the Moores for unrealized earnings on a 13% investment in an Indian company. The brief outlined the onerous and discriminatory burdens placed on Americans abroad by citizenship based taxation and the hardships that flow from it, such as the transition tax at issue in Moore.
Supreme Court/Moore Case Amicus Brief/Sept. 5, 2023
Submission to the House Ways and Means Committee on August 1, 2023, expressing concerns about the extra-territorial taxation of overseas Americans and the paradox created by the Committee’s objection to a proposed new framework on corporate taxation, and asking the Committee to hold hearings focused on the taxation of overseas U.S. citizens.
House Ways & Means/CBT/August 1, 2023
Letter to the House Ways and Means Committee on June 27, 2022, by the RBT Coalition, of which AARO is a member, to request that the Committee hold a hearing on the taxation of Americans abroad and related tax and compliance issues and, more specifically, on three bills dealing with these subjects.
House Ways & Means/RBT Coalition/June 27, 2022
Submission to the Senate Finance Committee on September 3, 2021, asking that proposed business tax legislation reverse the damage caused by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which adversely affected small businesses operating overseas and, in particular, to eliminate the burden of the Global Intangible and Low Income (GILTI) Tax and the Transition Tax, as they affect small businesses outside the United States.
Senate Finance/GILTI/Sept 3, 2021
Submission to the Senate Finance Committee on May 25, 2021, commenting on administration plans to reduce the “tax gap,” and urging the IRS to ensure that its rules targeting offshore evasion be subject to careful regulatory impact assessments and that unintended assaults on compliant, law-abiding, working class, middle class and retired Americans, as well as small businesses, be avoided.
Senate Finance/Tax Gap/May 25, 2021
Submission to the Senate Finance Committee on May 11, 2021, informing the Committee of AARO’s 2020 survey results and urging Congress to support H.R. 2710, which would establish a Commission on Americans Living Abroad.
Senate Finance/Survey and HR 2710/May 11, 2021
Submission to the Senate Finance Committee on April 7, 2021, urging the Committee, when Congress revisits the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, to take into account the inadvertent damage caused by this Act to small business owners and overseas American workers and entrepreneurs, and to correct this damage.
Senate Finance/Small Businesses/April 7, 2021
Letter to the Taxpayer First Act Office of the IRS on January 16, 2020, informing them of the barriers taxpayers face in getting IRS services, how the IRS' organizational structure can be modernized and how the IRS can improve its communications with taxpayers.
IRS Taxpayer First/IRS Services/January 16, 2020
Citizenship
Letter to the Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs on July 3, 2023, requesting the inclusion on their website of information relating to the various non-partisan groups – such as AARO – that provide support to U.S. citizens residing abroad.
Department of State/AARO on website/July 3, 2023
Letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on June 30, 2022, to express AARO’s desire to work with the State Department more closely on passport related matters.
Secretary of State/Passport Matters/June 30, 2022
Submission to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on May 5, 2021, expressing support for the American Families United Act (H.R. 2920).
House Judiciary Committee/American Families/May 5, 2021
Letter to the Office of Policy and Strategy in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security on November 2, 2020, providing its comments on proposed rule changes concerning the Affidavit of Support which is filed in conjunction with a Petition for Alien Relative.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services/Affidavit of Support/ Nov. 2, 2020
Social Security / Medicare
Letter to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on April 20, 2022, in support of a reduction in the premium for Medicare Part B.
Department of HHS/Medicare Part B/April 20, 2022
Voting
Letter to the Editor of the New York Times on October 20, 2023, expressing AARO's disappointment in a column by the Ethicist, in which he advised a Swedish/American that she had no “duty to vote” in the U.S. AARO also disagreed with his opinions that she was not invested politically in, nor had an ongoing interest in, the United States.
Letter to the Editor of the New York Times on October 20, 2023
General / Other Issues
Dear 535 Campaign: 535 letters by AARO, along with SEAT (Stop Extraterritorial American Taxation), one to each member of Congress, on April 24, 2023, urging them to support the legal reforms necessary to allow overseas Americans to live ordinary lives.
Congress/Dear 535 Campaign/April 24, 2023
Letter to the editorial board at the Wall Street Journal on April 4, 2023, expressing its appreciation for an op-ed article calling attention to American expats’ taxation without representation and agreeing with the authors that overseas Americans should have a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives.
WSJ/Congressional Representation/April 4, 2023
Letter to the Editor of the New York Times on October 20, 2023, expressing AARO's disappointment in a column by the Ethicist, in which he advised a Swedish/American that she had no “duty to vote” in the U.S. AARO also disagreed with his opinions that she was not invested politically in, nor had an ongoing interest in, the United States.
Representative Don Beyer, Caucus Welcome Letter, February 17, 2022
