Treasury Submission

As indicated in my last post, the Australian Treasury is seeking submissions on priorities for updating Australia’s tax treaty network. Fix the Tax Treaty! has made a submission. This post explains what you can do to help.

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Have you written your MP yet?

Following Karen’s recent Call to Action! post, we are starting to receive  positive feedback on our Open Letter – Extra-territorial Reach of US Tax Reform Legislation from our elected representatives here in Australia.  This campaign is well aligned with the core purpose of our group being  advocating for the Australian Government to renegotiate the under-pinning legacy tax treaties and intergovernmental agreements to provide a fair go for all Australians.

The Open Letter seeks to draw the Australian Government’s attention to an emerging harmful consequence of US extra-territorial taxation as part of US tax reform but it also serves as an opportunity for you to open a dialogue with your elected representatives about the pressing need for Australia to address the many deficiencies in the current Tax Treaty that disadvantage Australians with US ties.

We’ll share some of the positive feedback we received, but first, we want to again remind all of our members to please write your MP / Senators about this issue.   Presently, our follow-up survey suggests that only seven MPs have been contacted to-date, suggesting that only a small fraction of our membership have taken action.  Most Senators from NSW, QLD, SA and VIC have received at least one letter, making a total of 44 Senators who have been contacted. We have yet to hear from anyone in ACT, NT, TAS or WA who has contacted their representatives.  Without your active involvement, affecting positive change will be difficult.

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Call to Action!

We are all disappointed that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (HR 1) currently before Congress does not contain relief for non-resident citizens. But it could even make things worse!  The current legislative versions of the bill (both House and Senate) are poorly drafted and could be interpreted to harm individual shareholders of  “controlled foreign corporations,” including small businesses owned by non-US resident Americans (even though this is clearly not the intent of Congress).

It is time to contact our Australian elected representatives to make them aware of the potential extraterritorial reach of this harmful provision. The Steering Committee of Fix the Tax Treaty! has sent an open letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Treasurer Scott Morrison, and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop outlining why Australia should be interested in this issue and what Australia can do to mitigate the potential harm.

download letter
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It’s not ‘… a matter for them to pursue with the US’!

Back in 2014, we met with our federal MP who sent a letter on our behalf to the Assistant Treasurer asking about taxation of our superannuation accounts by the US. This is an extract of the response we received from then Acting Assistant Treasurer, Matthias Cormann:

Letter dated July 2014 from Acting Assistant Treasurer
Letter dated July 2014 from Acting Assistant Treasurer

I have a problem with this response.

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We are Australian!

Too often, when members of our government refer to the problems caused by FATCA or US CBT, they speak of “Americans residing in Australia”. This fails to recognise that many of us are Australian citizens, with all the rights that citizenship confers. This also fails to recognise that all Australians have a stake in this issue as FATCA and CBT drain money from the Australian economy, both in the form of US tax paid and as excess compliance costs forced on Australian financial institutions  (and paid for by all account holders through higher fees).

As I’ve said elsewhere, there are two fronts to the battle against US extra-territorial taxation: 1) the US and 2) the countries that allow the US to steal from their tax base.

If we are to pursue this struggle on the Australian front, we do it as Australians (which is not to diminish any connection we may still have to our American heritage).

So, how do we frame our letters and communication with our MPs and others to avoid having them frame the issue as one of “Americans in Australia”?

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