Your voice matters! Weigh in on Congressional and Treasury Department priorities for Americans abroad!

Please add your voice to those asking Congress and the Treasury to include a lasting solution to end the double-taxation of Americans abroad in any upcoming U.S. tax legislation.

Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad and other organizations representing the interests of Americans abroad have already written to both the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee in the wake of recent hearings with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Now it’s essential for as many Americans as possible to complement those letters with their own individual, personal testimony of the harm that citizenship-based taxation inflicts on Americans abroad and why they should support Rep. Darin LaHood’s Residence-Based Taxation for Americans Abroad Act.

Mr. Bessent appeared before both committees to discuss the department’s priorities. Only invited witnesses could make statements or ask questions in real time. But anyone can submit testimony in writing for the official record up until the close of business Washington, D.C. time on the 25th of June. This is where you come in!

We strongly encourage all Americans abroad to spend 10-15 minutes to draft short, personal statements for the record. This is the written equivalent of standing up and being counted and demonstrating the importance of this issue for Americans abroad.

We don’t want to script your letter for you because it’s important for your statement to be original and authentic. Shorter is better! We do strongly suggest that your letter include these six elements:

1. Who you are, where you were born and/or grew up, your U.S. connections (family, where you vote, etc.)

2. How the requirement to file U.S. tax returns and associated FATCA and FBAR forms as an American abroad harms you and your family (e.g. accounting fees, waste of time if no tax due, denied basic banking services abroad, etc.)

3. The daily reality that double taxation, FATCA and FBAR make Americans abroad second-class citizens even if no U.S. tax is due because of high compliance costs and hassles and draconian penalties for non-compliance

4. Thank President Trump for his campaign commitment to end the double taxation of Americans abroad. On the campaign trail, President Trump said: “I’m going to end double taxation on our overseas citizens. You’ve been wanting this for years and no one has listened to you. And you deserve it. And I’m going to do it. It’s the right thing to do.” (Please quote President Trump’s campaign commitment verbatim in your letter so that it appears in every statement Congress receives!)

5. Your support for Rep. Darin LaHood’s Residence-Based Taxation for Americans Abroad Act, which addresses the needs of the vast majority of Americans abroad and will soon be re-introduced in this Congress

6. Your support for anything the administration can do to prioritize an urgent solution to this non-political, bipartisan issue affecting millions of Americans abroad.

Here’s how to submit your comments:

Submission Instructions for the Ways and Means Committee (also available here):

DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS:

Please Note: Any person(s) and/or organization(s) wishing to submit written comments for the hearing record can do so here:WMSubmission@mail.house.gov. (Please also cc info@taxfairnessabroad.org!)

Please ATTACH your submission as a Microsoft Word document in compliance with the formatting requirements listed below, before the close of business on Wednesday, June 25, 2025. For questions, or if you encounter technical problems, please call (202) 225-3625.

FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:

The Committee relies on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing record. As always, submissions will be included in the record according to the discretion of the Committee. The Committee will not alter the content of your submission but reserves the right to format it according to guidelines. Any submission provided to the Committee by a witness, any materials submitted for the printed record, and any written comments in response to a request for written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below. Any submission not in compliance with these guidelines will not be printed but will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.

All submissions and supplementary materials must be submitted in a single document via email, provided in Word format and must not exceed a total of 10 pages. Please indicate the title of the hearing as the subject line in your submission. Witnesses and submitters are advised that the Committee relies on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing record. All submissions must include a list of all clients, persons and/or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears. The name, company, address, telephone, and fax numbers of each witness must be included in the body of the email. Please exclude any personal identifiable information in the attached submission.

Failure to follow the formatting requirements may result in the exclusion of a submission. All submissions for the record are final.

Submission Instructions for the Senate Finance Committee (also available here):

Any individual or organization wanting to present their views for inclusion in the hearing record should submit in a Word document, a single-spaced statement, not exceeding 10 pages in length. No other file type will be accepted for inclusion. Title and date of the hearing, and the full name and address of the individual or organization must appear on the first page of the statement. Statements must be received no later than two weeks following the conclusion of the hearing. Non-compliant submissions will not be accepted. Submissions are not reviewed by policy staff.

Statements can be emailed to: Statementsfortherecord@finance.senate.gov before the close of business on Wednesday, June 25, 2025.

(Please also cc info@taxfairnessabroad.org!)