US Expats Must Stand United and Say No to Taxation Without Representation
About 3% of US citizens live abroad sharing more in common with each other than the state of their virtual residence.
There are over 9 million tax-paying American citizens who make their permanent residence in locations other than the United States.
In terms of voting power, this would make them the 11th largest state in the Union if they were given the right to representation.
Under the current system, US citizens who live abroad are considered residents of the state they left. This has been an easy fix to a complex problem. First, US expats share more in common with their fellow expatriots than they do with the citizens from their home states.
The elected representatives from their home states have little interest and no motivation to represent the needs of their expat citizens. In the most real terms, expats do not share the same needs as the rest of the citizens of their state.
The United States is the only developed country in the world that generates taxes based on citizenship and not residence.
This makes it more imperative that the voices of expats are heard. This became starkly clear with the passage of the 2010 tax bill the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act which saw statesiders pass legislation that essentially doubled the tax filing burden of many expats living abroad without consulting them or giving them any thought.
The bill aimed at the bank accounts of terrorists and tax evaders hit tax-paying US citizens living overseas in a way not considered by the stateside residing members of Congress. The bill made US citizens living abroad toxic, untouchable to many foreign banks. Banks around the world began to refuse to allow US citizens to hold accounts. One hospital in Switzerland announced to its US employees, “lose your citizenship or lose your job.”
The passage of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act saw a spike in the number of US citizens renouncing their citizenship, with an increase of 266% in US citizens renouncing their US citizenship becoming official immigrants to the various countries of their residence.
Most Americans are not aware of this bill as, supposedly, our news agencies decided this news did not affect us. The truth is that many of us know a US citizen who makes their home elsewhere than the US. Another truth is that many expat US citizens hold great influence over the US and global economy.
If united as a voting bloc of 10 million, they would wield considerably more power; something that US politicians would be wise to keep in mind when they seek office.
The passage of this act was a direct attack on the financial well-being and residential stability of many US citizens.
US Congress unwittingly poked at a large bloc of well-educated, well-connected, under-represented voters with this one inconsiderate move.
The international Covid-19 pandemic has brought expatriot political issues to the forefront once again in the minds of many Americans living abroad. The increasing travel restrictions being imposed internationally to contain the virus and the red-tape involved with international travel has made many Americans living overseas delay trips home to the states and in some cases extend their residence abroad longer than they originally planned.
The non-partisan, not-for-profit organization Americans for Citizens Abroad founded over 40 years ago and its sister charity Americans for Citizens Abroad Global Foundation founded in 2007 makes it their goal to vocalize the needs of these citizens who live abroad.
Americans who live abroad are generally an unusually bipartisan often non-political group who find themselves in need of political representation due to their unique needs.
The blocks to voting as an expat can vary from country to country.
In some locations with official US Armed Forces mailing addresses, it’s as easy as it would be if the citizen was in the United States. In other more isolated locations, voting can be an insurmountable task. In 2016, it is estimated that only 12% of expats made it to the polls. A lower turnout percentage than any comparable group.
Internationally, almost 250 million people live outside the country of their birth.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-10-16/expats-deserve-their-own-senators-and-mps
30% of Bosnians live outside of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Ireland leads all developed countries with the highest percentage of its citizens living abroad with about 1 out of every 4 Irish citizens living somewhere besides Ireland. The country with the highest number of its citizens living abroad is India with 15.6 million citizens abroad.
Syria would rank higher on these lists if their citizens were more successful in immigrating to another country without being stuck in temporary shelters attempting to flee the war torn country. Even with the situation as it is today, 22% of Syrians have made their way into international databases as immigrants away from their birth country of Syria.
By living overseas, on the front lines, being the face of the United States diplomatically, and often representing our interests abroad, it is becoming more clearly obvious that US citizens living abroad are a suppressed voting bloc who are experiencing taxation without representation: the call to arms at the Boston Tea Party and the spark that ignited the American Revolution.
Many Americans living overseas also do not feel an affinity for the state of their supposed citizenship. Statewide and local ballot measures do not affect them. More so than regular citizens, US expats have a history of wanderlust and have lived in several states and often in several countries while abroad.
They share a political identify and affinity with each other more than their official state of residence.
There are also many burdens and blockages when they attempt to return to the states that many expats are unaware of.
Finding a job with a resume lined with foreign employers and references is difficult at best. Obtaining housing without any state-side rental history is another obstacle.
Unknown to most expats, after 7 years of inactivity, their credit scores are set to 0, their credit history erased. Having a good credit history is vital to obtaining a job, securing housing, electricity, a car loan, and most aspects of setting up a new life in a new location should they ever decide to return home.
I’m sure that the families of such expats miss their sons, daughters, nephews, and nieces living overseas and would welcome them home. They wouldn’t’ want to make it difficult or next to impossible for them to never return home again.
There are many political issues which greatly affect the lives of Americans living overseas. Issues which go ignored by politicians within the 50 states. Taxation without representation has a long history of being morally unacceptable to US citizens ever since the slogan was first used in the 1760s by Boston lawyer and political activist James Otis.
The number of US citizens abroad renouncing their US citizenship doubled again from 2010 to 2017 as their voices continue to go unrecognized and unheard.
The United States is losing out on the intellectual capital as well as the additional tax income these citizens would generate if the US tax code treated them with fairness.
These citizens are more valuable than the dollar figure we assign to them. They are well-educated, well-rounded, cultured, experienced professionals within various international industries who are often leaders in their fields.
The United States thumbing its nose at these 10 million Americans, virtually begging them to renounce the country of their birth, the country their loved ones reside in, like a petulant, possessive spoiled child shows the immaturity and greed of those elected to Congress.
If given the right to representation, American citizens living abroad could be an example to the rest of us, providing a much-needed outsider’s perspective on the way our government operates in this country. If given representation, they could act as a stable force of rationality and maturity in Congress protecting us from our more extreme tendencies that result from the United States being geographically isolated from most of the world.
