Legislation

Four House members urge Ways & Means to consider 'simplified tax form for expats' as ACA holds out for RBT

As news broke on Tuesday that four members of the U.S. House of Representatives had co-signed a letter to House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, in which they asked that a simplified, "short form" tax return be provided to American citizens who file their U.S. taxes from abroad, some…

September 28, 2021
Legislation
By staff writer

U.S./European group claims EU discriminates by barring 'U.S. Persons' from Covid bonds

A recently-formed alliance of "accidental Americans" in the Netherlands and a group calling itself Bi-National European Investment Bankers (BiNEIB) is urging the European Parliament to end what they call the "discriminatory, fundamental rights-violating" practice of prohibiting U.S. citizens resident in the EU, as well as EU/U.S. dual citizens, from being…

September 2, 2021
Legislation
By Helen Burggraf

Senate Finance Committee hearing: Dems unveil plans to overhaul Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

President Trump's 2017 overhaul of the U.S. tax system, known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, appears destined for its own major overhaul, to judge by the prepared statements of a succession of the Democratic Party's top lawmakers that were delivered during a two-and-a-half-hour Senate Finance Committee hearing on…

March 25, 2021
Legislation
By Helen Burggraf

Senate Finance Committee to hear today how U.S. int'l tax policy is impacting 'American workers, jobs, investment'

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).

March 25, 2021
Legislation
By staff writer

How well do you know your FATCA?

Without really meaning to, many American expatriates as well as tax industry experts, lawyers and others have become experts on the subject of FATCA over the past decade-plus that it's been around. So we thought it might be fun, for a change, to mark the occasion of FATCA's coming into…

March 18, 2021
Legislation
By Helen Burggraf

EU Commission vice president Valdis Dombrovskis at ECOFIN press conference

No hoped-for breakthroughs seen to emerge from Tuesday's landmark ECOFIN discussion of FATCA

Last Tuesday's eagerly-anticipated (online) discussion of the controversial American tax law known as FATCA by the EU's Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) – which had been flagged up in advance by campaigners who argue that it causes a raft of problems for "accidental Americans" as well as ordinary American expats and…

February 21, 2021
Legislation
By Helen Burggraf

Jan. 1 passage of Corporate Transparency Act to see creation of U.S. beneficial ownership registry

In spite of some determined opposition to beneficial ownership registers around the world – on grounds that they put the personal details of the individuals whose names appear on them at risk of being stolen, or otherwise illegally made use of – governments have also been introducing them more and more…

January 6, 2021
Legislation
By Helen Burggraf

Accidental Americans Ass'n files legal actions over FATCA data transfers in two EU countries

The Paris based Association des Américains Accidentels (Association of Accidental Americans, or AAA) has filed two legal complaints simultaneously in Belgium and Luxembourg, in which it demands the “immediate halt to the transfer of European citizens’ personal data to the United States”.

December 23, 2020
Legislation
By staff writer

Proposed FATCA reciprocity amendment to France's 2021 Finance Bill seen derailed, after declared 'inadmissible' in Senate

A proposed amendment to France's 2021 Finance Bill, which would have obliged the U.S. to reciprocate with respect to the information it currently receives from France under FATCA, has been declared "inadmissible" by the chairman of the French Senate's finance committee, and thus will not be included in the final draft…

December 6, 2020
Legislation
By Helen Burggraf

Yue: Meadows said to be 'very interested' in legislative action plan, but 'after the election'

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows did in fact receive a letter sent to him last month by the Republicans Overseas that urged him to call on President Trump to use his presidential authority to issue an "executive order" aimed at fixing certain tax issues expat Americans are currently…

October 5, 2020
Legislation
By staff writer

Little noticed abroad, controversial new U.S. ‘best interest’ law takes effect today

A years-long battle in the U.S. over the standards that financial advisers and “broker-dealers” should be held to, when recommending products for their clients, will formally end today, when what is known as the Security and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Best Interest comes into effect.

June 30, 2020
Legislation
By Helen Burggraf

More...

The FATCA/AEOI Papers: Mishcon publishes research trove, unearthed as part of crowd-funded UK FATCA case

Correspondence and other documents having to do with the way the U.S. tax evasion-prevention law known as FATCA was agreed upon, and is now enforced by EU governments – along with similar materials having to do with the OECD’s more recent automatic exchange of information (AEOI) regime known as the…

May 6, 2020
Legislation
By Helen Burggraf

Confirmed – Rep. Holding to leave Congress at end of 2020, after reintroducing Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad Act

Republican Congressman George Holding has officially confirmed that he has "decided not to seek reelection" and will leave his seat at the end of 2020, but a Republicans Overseas official said on Saturday that Rep. Holding would "reintroduce his Tax Fairness For Americans Abroad Act" before he leaves office.

December 7, 2019
Legislation
By Helen Burggraf

Martyn Day, MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk

Now Scottish MP questions UK government about 'recent representations' concerning FATCA

Another British member of Parliament has come forward to question the UK's chancellor of the exchequer, on behalf of a dual American/British citizen constituent, as to what if any "recent representations he has made to his [U.S.] counterpart" with respect to "the creation of accidental Americans through the U.S. Foreign…

October 17, 2019
Legislation
By Helen Burggraf

Dems Abroad: Americans Abroad Caucus co-chair Maloney planning to re-introduce two expat-friendly bills

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…

July 24, 2019
Legislation
By staff writer