An American in Sweden lives in fear of double taxation

“Allow us to remain proud of our citizenship without being crushed by a system that does not recognize the realities of our lives.”

—Michael Salter, Sweden

Dear Members of Congress,

My name is Michael, and I was born in Washington, DC, on February 22, George Washington’s birthday. Today I live in Sweden, where I have spent more than twenty years with my wife, whom I met in 1987 and married in 1992, and with our two children. My life has been shared between two nations. I have worked and paid taxes in both Sweden and the United States, always doing my duty, always carrying with me the pride of being American even while living abroad.

Yet every year I face an exhausting ordeal. Because I am American, I have to file two full sets of tax returns, one in Sweden where I actually live, and another in the United States, where I no longer reside. What should be a straightforward civic duty has become a heavy burden filled with complicated forms and obscure rules that I can no longer manage on my own. I now rely on a law firm, paying thousands of dollars each year, simply to remain in compliance with the country of my birth.

Retirement anxiety

As retirement approaches, my anxiety grows. I do not know how my Swedish pension and my U.S. Social Security will interact. I live with the constant fear that a lifetime of work will be diminished by double taxation. The system leaves me uncertain of the future I had hoped to secure for myself and my family.

I am far from alone. More than five million Americans abroad live this same reality. We vote, we raise our children with American values, and we remain engaged in the civic life of our nation, yet we have no direct representation. The United States stands almost entirely alone in the world, together with Eritrea, in imposing taxation based on citizenship rather than residence.

This policy has forced many into heartbreaking decisions. Some have closed businesses. Others have lost access to banking. Many have renounced their citizenship, not because they wished to stop being American but because they could no longer endure the system. I have considered it myself, not out of rejection of my homeland but out of despair that I might have to choose between the stability of my family and the identity that has always defined me.

Please end double taxation

There is hope. Representative Darin LaHood has introduced the Residence-Based Taxation for Americans Abroad Act. This legislation offers a fair and balanced solution. It would bring the United States into alignment with the rest of the world, finally recognizing that citizens who live abroad should not be punished for doing so. It would also honor the promise once made that Americans overseas would be spared the injustice of double taxation.

I ask you to listen with conscience and responsibility. Do not let millions of Americans abroad continue to feel excluded, penalized, and forgotten. Allow us to remain proud of our citizenship without being crushed by a system that does not recognize the realities of our lives.

Respectfully,
Michael
Stockholm, Sweden