FAQ

Some organizations do not go far enough. For example, they may oppose reporting obligations related to citizen-based taxation, but still tolerate the principle. We don’t. The United States is the only developed country in the world that requires its citizens living in other countries to file a U.S. tax declaration on non-U.S. income and related financial reporting forms every year in addition to having to do the same thing for the countries in which they live. We want the United States to repeal citizenship-based taxation altogether and accept the global standard of residence-based taxation.

We are happy and proud to be Americans and should not have to renounce our U.S. citizenship to be treated fairly. Other developed countries allow their citizens to have more than one nationality but do not impose citizenship-based taxation. Many of us were born in the United States, raised in the United States, went to college in the United States and/or are still culturally closer to the United States than to the countries in which we live. Moreover, if a child is born in Germany to one U.S. parent and one Italian parent and only lives a short time in Germany, that child may identify more with the United States and with Italy because of family connections than he or she will with Germany, of which he or she might not even be a citizen. If that child later lives in other countries long enough to acquire other nationalities he or she will still be American—but should only have to pay taxes in the country where he or she lives and/or earns taxable income.

Several other countries have had, and repealed, citizenship-based taxation. The U.S. law dates from the 18th Century and is clearly outdated, out of touch with global best practice, disproportionate and discriminatory vis-à-vis U.S. citizens abroad. Since many U.S. citizens pay more taxes abroad than they would in the United States anyway, the United States may not even lose tax revenues (due to foreign tax credits)—but its citizens abroad will breathe easier and have a reason to stop renouncing their citizenship.

Our objective is ambitious, but we are convinced that if we succeed in strongly mobilizing the huge community of Americans living outside the United States, we will be able to convince Congress to adopt Residence-Based Taxation.

We are funded typically with small donations by individual donors, all of whom are U.S. citizens. We will comply with all applicable laws.

To help, please click on the Donate button at the top of the page.

All funds collected will be used to finance public relations and advocacy activities.

We are actively seeking donations in order to mount a campaign to overturn citizenship-based taxation and replace it with residence-based taxation.

Our founders have a proven track record of putting donations to good use and getting results.

Residence-based taxation (RBT) means declaring income in the country in which you live and/or earn the income. Its opposite is citizenship-based taxation (CBT), in which people are required to declare income and potentially pay taxes to a country of which they’re a citizen but where they do not live. The only other country with CBT similar to that of the United States is Eritrea – and even its system is not as unfair and discriminatory as the U.S. system.

Note: Even under RBT, a U.S. citizen living abroad would continue to have to pay taxes on U.S.-source income such as real estate rental income or retirement income because it is considered “earned” in the United States.

For further background, please see the About page.

Various organizations have proposed country-of-residence carve-outs as a partial solution to the U.S. tax and compliance woes of Americans abroad. Indeed, they would help many Americans abroad, but not all Americans abroad, for at least three good reasons:

1. Country-of-residence exceptions for local bank and financial accounts of Americans abroad do not address the problems caused by the fact that many "accidental" Americans who have never lived or worked in the United States do not have social security numbers.

2. They also do not resolve the problems of cross-border workers who may live in one country and work in another.

3. They would also unfairly limit the freedom of people who live in common economic areas such as the 27-nation European Union. Anyone in the EU is allowed to work in one country and have investment accounts in another, just like Americans living in one state but with a bank in another.

The only acceptable solution for accidental Americans and people working in border areas is full residence-based taxation.

We are not starting from scratch, but will build on the hard work of many other organizations over many years. In order to end citizenship-based taxation, we need to identify and enlist a large number of Americans who live abroad and who suffer from the effects of CBT.

Some other organizations that share similar goals are partisan by nature, or have many different goals, or are fighting for different forms of incremental relief. We have only one mission, to end CBT, and we will invest all our resources to that end. We have a large number of willing and talented volunteers and also intend to hire the best professionals to help us where needed.