Caught between two worlds, Murielle looks to Congress to end “absurd” U.S. reporting rules

Dear Congress,

I was born in Alexandria, Virginia, to a German father and a French mother, which makes me more European than American. Yet the fact I was born in the United States has caused me a lifetime of financial harm. 

I left the United States at the age of four because my father was transferred to Germany for his job: He was a cameraman at ZDF, a German public television station.

Years later, I was surprised when my bank asked me for a U.S. Tax Identification Number just because I was born on American soil. This search nearly drove me crazy. Where could I find this number? At the town hall? Somewhere else? Nothing was clear. As an only child growing up in France, I did not have any American family members to ask for advice. 

I would be more than happy to renounce this burdensome American citizenship. I don’t identify with it, and don’t vote in the United States. But the cost of renouncing—$2,350—is far too high. I have a handicap and am unable to work, so every cent counts. I support the Association of Accidental Americans, based in Paris and its efforts to both reduce the cost of renouncing American citizenship and, together with Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad, end citizenship-based taxation once and for all.

Americans hear a lot about illegal immigrants desperate to enter the United States to work and maybe to become citizens, and President Trump’s efforts to send them home. Well, there are also many thousands of “accidental Americans” who never asked to become American citizens but have had to pay the price their whole lives in terms of accounting fees, banking restrictions and absurd reporting requirements, from filing two tax returns a year to FATCA and FBAR forms that make no sense at all for accidental Americans.

Please support Rep. Darin LaHood and Sen. Todd Young’s Residence-Based Taxation for Americans Abroad Act, which we hope will be reintroduced in Congress soon. That would finally offer people like me a chance at living normal lives free from double taxation. 

Sincerely, 

Murielle in France