Reconciliation Bill: Don't forget non-resident Americans!

I am a US citizen and taxpayer living abroad that undergoes considerable effort and expense to prepare not one, but two tax returns each year to both the country I live and work in and the United States. Every few years, this process gets more complicated and more expensive because the impact of tax code changes on non-resident citizens is not considered. Whenever there is talk of reigning in the wealthy, that seems to translate to punishing tax changes that hit middle and working class Americans like myself instead of achieving their intended goals. Recently, a number of Ways & Means Committee members have expressed support for filing modifications for non-residents whose tax liability is zero—a frequent occurrence, given that most countries have higher personal income taxes than the United States. Those representatives are Don Beyer (D-VA-08), Judy Chu (D-CA-27), Suzan DelBene (D-WA-01), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-20), Brad Schneider (D-IL-10), Brendan Boyle (D-PA-02), Danny Davis (D-IL-07), Tom Suozzi (D-NY-03), and Mike Thompson (D-CA-05). Additionally, there has been considerable concern expressed by a number of individuals and groups around the lack of exemptions for small business owners from the GILTI tax, which has forced a number of non-resident Americans to either close their businesses or to go delinquent on their taxes. Even though it’s widely understood that the right thing to do is to stop equating kebab shops & yoga studios owned by Americans to multinationals like Amazon and Apple, there has been little talk of addressing a highly regressive tax whose reporting costs can be astronomical. I urge you to ensure that a GILTI exemption for small and medium businesses is included in the reconciliation bill. I will lastly note that until there is a move to a bona-fide model of Residence Based Taxation, Americans Abroad will face severe restrictions in our access to financial services. Laws in our countries of residence oblige us to bank and invest locally while the laws in the US oblige us to bank and invest offshore, in the United States. In addition to being caught between a conflict of jurisdictions, the United States has no regulations ensuring that all US taxpayers have access to US financial services—essential given that US legislation has resulted in many countries taking the view that discrimination on the basis of nationality or place of birth is illegal, unless it concerns Americans. The inclusion of measures in the reconciliation bill to protect the right of all Americans to have a bank account, ordinary brokerage account, and an IRA, and to freely invest in any US traded mutual funds/ETFs would be a substantial improvement that removes a significant barrier to compliance that affects numerous individuals. I urge you to support these changes to the reconciliation bill: a reduction of filing burden, an exemption from GILTI, and measures to protect access to financial services.