Why your donations to Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad matter

Dear supporters,

It was your donations to Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad which got us this far. Now we need your help to ensure that residence-based taxation passes Congress.

Ever since Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL) introduced the "Residence-Based Taxation for Americans Abroad Act" in December 2024, many organizations have pledged to support it. That’s great. We will need all the help we can get. Via our Board members, we are coordinating closely with key people within Democrats Abroad, Republicans Overseas, the National Taxpayers Union, The Association of Americans Resident Overseas, The Association of Accidental Americans and Stop Extraterritorial American Taxation—all of which deserve credit for their direct contributions to the bill on the table.

While many organizations are now actively supporting the bill and asking for donations, only one organization—Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad—was mentioned in Mr. LaHood’s press release and has engaged government relations professionals who have direct experience working in the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees, the two committees that write U.S. tax laws. As you can imagine, that kind of support costs money. We have gotten this far thanks entirely to your individual donations.

Months of work lie ahead

In a best-case scenario, we still have 4-5 months of work ahead of us. Changing tax laws takes time. In a less-rosy scenario, we might still have a year of work ahead of us. Or more.

The “treasure map” above shows the path to success. We are currently waiting for the Joint Committee on Taxation—a non-partisan Congressional body—to “score” the LaHood bill, a crucial step towards determining how to ensure that it is as close to revenue-neutral as we can get it. We still need to find co-sponsors in the House and Senate—ideally bipartisan sponsors. And then we need to convince everyone else in Congress to support it.

We estimate that we will need between $500,000 and $1,000,000 to cover our advocacy costs for the months ahead. That would cover expert on-the-ground support in Washington and ongoing lobbying and public relations support. Both help create the political and public support needed to pass the bill.

How much do you spend on U.S. tax preparation support?

Half a million dollars might sound like a lot of money, but if only 1% of the more than 5 million Americans living abroad were to donate just 1% of the estimated $2,500 that those filing U.S. tax returns spend on accounting fees every year, we would exceed our goals.

With your help, we can seize this unique opportunity and build a better future for millions of Americans around the world.

Please contribute whatever you can, whenever you can and become part of this historic effort. Together, we can end double taxation and make tax fairness for Americans abroad a reality once and for all.

Sincerely,

The team at Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad