To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Residency based taxation
The United States is the only advanced industrialized nation to tax citizens residing abroad. This puts Americans at a competitive disadvantage in the increasingly globalized economy. I propose aligning out tax policy with the rest of the world and adapting residency based taxation.
Why is this important?
Americans are renouncing their citizenship at alarming rates, the IRS has seen its budget cut and is still being tasked with chasing people who do not reside in the country. Is it moral to tax someone who does not live in the country and whose income is not derived from the country? Citizenship based taxation is a relic of the Civil War when the Union attempted to punish the Confederacy for seceding by taxing all, ''citizens'' (persons born on American soil) and was not repealed following the reunification of our country. President Obama chided Americans for being, ''lazy'' in foreign investment, but investing abroad often entails residing abroad and double taxation discourages this. Residency based taxation would make Americans more competitive abroad, reduce the burden on the IRS and is the morally the right thing to do.