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.

(UPDATED to include YouTube link)

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 citizenship-based tax regime with one based on residency.

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.

Under pressure from European banks in particular, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service has issued clarification with respect to a FATCA requirement that "foreign financial institutions" be obliged to provide the so-called Taxpayer Identification Numbers of their American clients from January, 2020 onward, which tax experts say means that banks now won't have to close the accounts of their TIN-lacking "accidental American" clients at the end of this year.

New York Representative Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat who is co-chair of a Congressional group known as the Americans Abroad Caucus, is planning to re-introduce two bills of interest to Americans abroad, one of which calls for the creation of a "standing commission" that would review all laws that are currently having an adverse impact on Americans resident abroad, and also work to prevent new laws from being enacted that inadvertently harm non-resident Americans.

The Democrats Abroad, the official organization of the Democratic Party for American citizens living permanently or temporarily outside of the U.S., has reported that it is in discussions with Virginia Rep. Don Beyer on a range of issues, including residence-based taxation (RBT).