Non-partisan discussion set for London on efforts to end U.S. citizen-based tax regime
A panel discussion that will consider recent and growing efforts to convince U.S. lawmakers to end America’s increasingly-unpopular “citizenship-based” tax regime is set to take place at a venue in the Mayfair district of London, on the 18th of September.
American expats with concerns about the way they are being taxed are being invited to the event, which is entitled “What’s next: a light at the end of the tunnel? The possible end of U.S. citizenship-based taxation.”
The discussion will feature Solomon Yue (pictured), the Oregon-based global chief executive of the Republicans Overseas, who has been a long-time and visible campaigner on behalf of expatriate Americans, but the event’s organizers say he will be joined in London by tax, Solomon Yue legal and citizenship experts from across the political spectrum.
Some tax experts who are determinedly non-political, including at least one non-American, will also participate, the event’s organizers, an un-affiliated group of individuals who include some Republican Overseas members, said.
A question-and-answer period will be held at the end.
The event is being billed as the third stop on a global tour Yue is making to drum up support among U.S. expats for a change in the way their country currently taxes them. The current citizenship-based tax (CBT) regime, unique in the developed world, has become impossible for growing numbers of such expats to comply with, particularly in the wake of President Trump’s tax reforms, unveiled in December, Yue and other advocates of change say.
Last month Yue participated in three similar such events in Toronto, including one that was filmed and posted on YouTube. The recorded event was also reported on here.
This followed an earlier appearance in May in Hong Kong. Yue is set to follow up the London event in coming weeks with similar programs in Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt and Rome, most of which are being sponsored by the respective local chapters of the American Chamber of Commerce.
Among those scheduled to join Yue at the London event will be John Richardson, a Toronto-based lawyer who specializes in citizenship issues, and who is an American-Canadian dual national himself; David Treitel, a London-based U.S. tax specialist and managing director of American Tax Returns Ltd; and Andrew Grossman, a retired, Switzerland-based U.S. foreign service officer who writes on private international law issues.
Like Yue, Richardson has been a prominent voice in the global debate over America’s CBT regime, via his www.citizenshipsolutions.ca blog, as well as his frequent contributions to other blogs and news websites.
He also features prominently in the YouTube video of last month’s Toronto events.
Bill would end mandatory CBT
Yue’s global whistle-stop tour of key American expat cities comes as a Republican U.S. congressman, George Holding of North Carolina, is known to be putting the finishing touches on a bill that would end the CBT regime by introducing what he and other Republican proponents call “Territorial Taxation for Individuals”, or TTFI.
Yue and other advocates of TTFI argue that it is the only way to ensure that American expats have the ability to remain American citizens.
He and other TTFI proponents point out that the number of American expatriates renouncing their citizenships has been soaring in recent years, as the costs and difficulties in remaining an American abroad have mounted, beginning after the signing into law of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act in 2010.
From just 231 renunciations globally in 2008, the numbers of American expats seeking to hand in their passports leapt to 742 by 2009 and 5,411 in 2016, the most ever recorded in a year, according to U.S. government figures.
The reason the 2017 number was less than the previous year’s was thought to reflect a decision on the part of some American expats to take a wait-and-see approach to renouncing in the second half of the year, in anticipation that Donald Trump’s then-much-talked-about tax reform bill would make things less harsh for them going forward.
In fact though, as has now been well documented, the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, signed into law on December 22, actually made things far worse for many expats.
The organizers of the Mayfair event featuring Yue say he is expected to “present publicly shareable information about [Holding’s] TTFI bill, and will discuss the journey through the legislative process [of this legislation, which is informally being referred to as “Tax Reform 2.0”], and the impact this will have on businesses owned by overseas Americans.”
Details of the event:
When: Tuesday 18 September 2018 - 17:30 to 19:00
Where: Central London location – to be confirmed upon RSVP (nearest Underground station: Green Park)
Venue: To be provided upon RSVP
Cost: Free to attend
RSVP: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 12:00 Monday 17 September 2018
Dress Code: Business attire
Questions regarding the event, sponsorship opportunities: Erika Miller, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
