American Citizens Abroad Blasts Tax Law

Draconian legislation pushes expats to renounce their citizenship

Washington, DC—In an April 4, 2012, submission to the leadership of the International Tax Reform Working Group and the Financial Services Tax Reform Working Group of the Committee on Ways and Means of the U.S. House of Representatives, American Citizens Abroad (ACA) – the flagship association representing the interests of some seven million Americans residing outside the United States – has again called for repeal of FATCA ("the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act") as part of a comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. tax system.   While focusing on the particular damage FATCA does to U.S. citizens living abroad, ACA pulls no punches in spelling out the broader harm this 2010 law (now pending implementation) threatens to inflict on the American economy as a whole, while failing in its stated purpose of curbing offshore tax evasion.

Special attention should be paid to the international consequences of the U.S. Treasury Department's attempts to implement FATCA via "intergovernmental agreements" (IGAs), which are nowhere mentioned in the law and have not been authorized by Congress.   IGAs threaten to compound the harm inflicted by this misguided legislation by repatriating FATCA's costs on U.S. domestic institutions (and American consumers) under an unwise, unworkable, and unbalanced attempt at "reciprocity" with foreign governments.