Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, in 2010, this body passed the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act, the HIRE Act. Included in that measure was the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA. FATCA requires U.S. citizens living abroad to prepare tax returns that include both non-U.S. income and non-U.S. financial accounts. Additionally, FATCA requires financial institutions in other countries to report on assets held by American clients to the IRS. If those institutions do not supply that information, they would be subject to a 30 percent withholding tax. In a recent report, nearly 77,000 institutions have agreed to hand over that information to the IRS. The unintended consequences of this law are affecting over 7 million Americans living overseas. Due to the additional reporting burden, many institutions are simply denying access to our citizens. Simply put, added regulations from the Federal Government are putting our citizens at a competitive disadvantage around the world, and foreign firms now view our citizens as too much of a hassle and a liability to hire, making America less competitive. One of the solutions to this would be to switch from a citizen-based taxation to a territorial or to simply repeal FATCA. The U.S. citizens who live and work abroad are our Nation's biggest spokesmen for our America and our way of life and what America stands for. They represent our country in areas of the world that typically see Americans in a skewed light.…”