About nine million Americans live outside the United States. For the most part, they’re not a lot different from people stateside — except that family, education, work or service led them to live outside the country.
In two ways, though, they are different:
1. Special voting provisions for citizens abroad are found in a federal law, called the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), which ensures that eligible US citizens can register and vote no matter where in the world they live. In 2020, more US citizens voted from overseas than ever before. Voters abroad turned out in record numbers to participate, providing critical votes in states like Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
2. US citizens abroad face taxation in both the jurisdiction where they live and in the United States. The United States, unlike virtually every other country in the world, taxes its non-resident citizens on their worldwide income. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion provides that a large amount of ordinary income is not subject to U.S. taxation but many types of income are not covered by this exclusion—so income is taxed in two countries. This includes income from many pensions, investments and retirement plans.
Under current US tax rules, the filing of taxes by ordinary families who live abroad is bewildering — costly, complex and potentially perilous. And citizens abroad have to file even if they owe the US nothing. As Democrats Abroad noted recently,
United States tax laws “have grave, unintended consequences for ordinary, non-resident Americans. Given the harm they suffer, it is not difficult to understand why Americans abroad have come to believe they are being punished for moving away from the U.S. They are proud of their U.S. citizenship and deeply resent the presumption that they are tax cheats and money launderers.”
Congress has given scant attention in recent years to the issues that affect the daily lives of these millions of US citizens.
That could change in 2021.
- The House has passed HR 1, the For the People Act of 2021. Subtitle J of that bill includes reforms to UOCAVA designed to make voting from abroad easier.
- On March 25 the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on International Tax Policy and the Impact on American Workers, Jobs and Investment. Democrats Abroad and other groups provided testimony on issues related to Americans living abroad and called for a hearing dedicated to the issues.
Now is an important time to gather voices of ordinary people who are affected by the decisions on voting and taxation Congress makes. What can you do?
- Advocate to secure voting rights in the For the People Act
- Support Democrats Abroad — Help DA’s vital GOTV work, which helped turn the Senate blue in 2021.
- Join Democrats Abroad taxation advocacy effort — including by sharing your story with the Senate Finance Committee. You can add your own personal statement in support of tax reform for Americans abroad to the official hearing record until Thursday, April 8.