As various expat organizations ramp up their efforts to persuade Washington lawmakers to move the U.S. away from its Civil War-era taxation regime, which is based on citizenship rather than residency, the Association of Americans Resident Overseas has revealed that 90% of more than 400 U.S. expats it surveyed last October and November support such a change. 

There has already been much speculation by media organizations, American expat groups and cross-border U.S. tax specialists about how the US$2trn federal stimulus package known as the CARES Act, signed into law last Friday by President Trump, will actually impact American citizens and Green Card-holders living outside of the United States.

Here, Karen Alpert, an Australia-based academic and tax expert who oversees a blog entitled FixtheTaxTreaty.org, considers some of the unforeseen consequences that seem likely to emerge from the U.S.'s well-intentioned plan to distribute a "Recovery Rebate" to such non-US-resident Americans... 

The American Citizens Abroad has called on Congress, the Treasury and the IRS to include Americans who are resident abroad in any formal efforts to help U.S. citizens who have been affected by the current coronavirus pandemic. 

As awareness of the problems associated with the Obama-era law known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has gradually become more widespread, there's been more discussion about the possibility of the U.S. moving away from its globally-all-but-unique citizenship-based tax regime, to one based on residency.

Americans who are living abroad and are frustrated by the myriad tax and citizenship issues they're facing can do more than complain, an audience of such Americans was told the other evening in London.

The Accidental Americans Association, a Paris-based group that campaigns for fairer treatment for those who left the U.S. as babies or never lived there but who say they are nevertheless burdened by unfair U.S. tax obligations, has launched what it calls a "major lobbying campaign" to educate American lawmakers of these "accidentals'" plight. 

Over the last few months, details have begun to emerge about soon-to-be-introduced legislation aimed at making the U.S. tax regime less unforgiving for the 9 million Americans estimated to live overseas, growing numbers of whom say they feel they now have no choice but to renounce their U.S. citizenships.

A panel of tax and business experts who have been lobbying for years to end the U.S.’s citizenship-based tax regime has said they believe planned legislation – specifically aimed at addressing some of the worst of the problems such expats have been struggling with – actually stands a chance of being passed.