A group of American expats located in at least four different countries is laying the groundwork for a major legal challenge against "the application of U.S. citizenship-based taxation" to Americans who are living outside of the U.S.

As growing numbers of expatriate Americans are calling on U.S. lawmakers to replace America's problematic citizenship-based tax regime with a system that's based on a taxpayer's current country of residence, the Washington, DC-based American Citizens Abroad is urging expats, members of Congress and others to revisit its most-recent research report – which ACA officials say has some of the best data anywhere on the subject. 

Don Beyer, a U.S. Democratic congressman who represents a Virginia constituency, has introduced legislation he says is aimed at making life significantly easier for American expatriates, by making it easier for them to comply with their U.S. tax obligations. 

Convincing Congress and the Biden Administration of the need for the U.S. to move to a "residence-based" system of taxation is the No. 1 focus of American expatriate advocacy groups around the world right now.

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It's only when Americans move overseas that they tend to discover something that few Homeland Americans are aware of: that the U.S. is the only country in the world that taxes on the basis of citizenship rather than residency – apart from Eritrea.

The American Citizens Abroad Global Foundation – the sister educational and research organization to the Washington, D.C.-based American Citizens Abroad advocacy group – today is unveiling a campaign to raise US$75,000 to fund a research project that it plans to help provide the ACA and others with fresh data that the ACAGF says will help to support arguments in favor of moving the U.S. to a Residence-Based Taxation system.

The U.S. Senate's Finance Committee today will hear from a number of experts on how the country's "international tax policy" is impacting U.S. workers, jobs and investment, during a "virtual hearing" scheduled to begin today at 9:30am Washington time (1:30pm GMT).

Campaigners advocating that the U.S. join most of the rest of the world in adopting a residence-based tax regime – rather than the current, citizenship-based one – are viewing the recent publication of an article endorsing the idea by the Washington Examiner as a sign that the issue is beginning to attract the right kind of attention, in the city where it matters most.

A draft edition of the Democratic Party’s 2020 policy platform, published last week in advance of the party’s scheduled National Convention next month, contains none of the issues expats and the groups representing them have been calling for – including a call for replacing the U.S.'s current citizenship-based tax regime with one based on the taxpayer's residence.

China has begun coming after some of its citizens living abroad to collect taxes – making good on its previously-disclosed plans to get some of its taxpayers who are resident outside of the country to contribute to their home country’s tax coffers, Bloomberg, the South China Morning Post and other major media organizations have reported over the last few days.