Spring Update

It's no surprise; I don't feel like writing much these days. Looking back, though, over the past 3 or 4 months, I haven't been sitting, watching the world go by.
We went to the UK at the end of February for a lovely visit with the family, there. No, we didn't do much -- just appreciated the family! That's enough for us. On my birthday, the very day, at the beginning of February, I found just the knitting machine I'd been on the lookout for -- a brother "bulky" machine with its ribber. It was my birthday. I figured it was meant for me, so I arranged to buy it from the very nice lady in Bedford -- not far from Northampton, really. I asked G. if he could pick it up for me, pay the lady in cash.... And he did. So, when we arrived at the end of the month, by car, it was waiting for me and all I had to do was pay G. back.
I managed to set the machine up just before leaving for the US in mid-March. I even managed to make a scarf for T. for his birthday! There were a few sloppy patches -- dropped stitches in the Fisherman's Rib -- that I had to repair by hand, but nothing catastrophic. I also made a scarf for my high school friend in Florida, T.
This leads to the trip to the US -- first a night in Philly with M. T. and her husband. Very enjoyable evening with these old, old family friends (our grandparents were close friends, already) and then into Philly in the morning for an agreeable meeting with the Commissioner for Elections at the Election Board to discuss some of the glitches in the absentee system -- between the Board of Elections and the pavoter site.
After the meeting, I took the train to the airport and caught my flight down to DC, where I got a new metro card and hopped onto the metro to go out to T. and B.'s. Friday evening was T' 90th birthday party! Earlier that day, I had a cup of coffee with K. and talked about what was happening as far as our overseas Americans issues were concerned. He's been working with the Republicans Overseas on their tax proposal, which promotes territorial taxation. He's also been involved with setting up a Congressional hearing on FATCA, to be held later this month. He's also very homesick for France. When I got back to the house, I saw my cousin T. and R. for a little while, before we all went off to get ready for the party. It was a wonderful family reunion. Cousins not seen for a long, long time. Family never met before. My brother, J., and T, of course, down from Pittsburgh. Lively conversation. A successful party!
Sunday, I moved out of their house to go to the airbnb room I had rented in DC. It was simply a room this time, not a whole apartment, as I had no one to share with. The apartment belongs to a charming young engineer. We didn't run into each other very much. The only complaint I could have was the spotty wifi connection. I could connect if I was in the living room sitting in front of the box, but as soon as I went back to my room, the connection was gone. It was not far from the U-street station and just a little farther to the Dupont Circle station.
On a map, nothing looks far. I got off the metro at Dupont Circle and walked down to the Staples at 19th and L to pick up the printing of our position papers that I had ordered on line. It was a bit longer walk than I had thought it would be, but since I stopped for lunch on the way, it was a nice walk. On the way to my room though, it was a much longer walk, even if I didn't go back up to Dupont Circle, and dragging my suitcase and the printing was not pleasant. The room was on 15th, between R and S.
Early in the evening, I walked over to Dupont Circle -- the others were staying close by. We met at the Cosmos Club, which is just behind the Phillips Collection. I arrived early enough to spend a little while at the Phillips. They had a Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit on. My back gave out after only half an hour, so I wandered off to the Cosmos and ran into N. just as I entered the building. I distributed our position papers to the others.
We had some interesting meetings both on and off the Hill. I've written my reports and talked about it since coming back and do not want to dwell on it, here. For me, the week was over after the meeting at the State Department on Friday. I went back to my room to collect my suitcase and then took the metro to the airport.
There was a big P family gathering in Orlando to celebrate Roger. BIG. On Saturday, 18 of us went to the New Smyrna for a day at the beach. I fell asleep and the back of my legs got a bit burnt. In the evening, there was a big dinner party for family and then more people came as dessert time for the celebration of his life. G. has published a wonderful book of his musings, poetry, and artwork, which I was able to pick up before leaving. Sunday morning, we all gathered at the house for brunch. It was ever so pleasant to be with the clan. The day went on and we had scrumptious leftovers and not just leftovers. After the week in DC, I felt relaxed, at last.
Monday, I took off, on my own, to visit T and her husband on the west coast of Florida. First, I left the road to go to a yarn shop in Winter Haven, Four Purls. They couldn't have been nicer, but they did not have the kind of inexpensive cotton I was looking for. They had plenty of other beautiful yarns and if any Floridians who knit or crochet are reading this, I recommend the place. Then it was back roads through rural Florida -- horse farms, mostly -- to T's. And we gabbed and gabbed and gabbed and watched a movie (Lion) and gabbed and gabbed. I must compliment her husband on his patience with us. They treated me to a great buffet style restaurant -- nothing special, just plain good food.
I guess I wasn't as relaxed and back to my normal state as I thought I was. I managed to convince myself that my flight back was on Tuesday, so instead of spending the day and another night at T's, I ended up rushing back to Orlando, picked up the book from G., and rushed to the airport. There, I discovered I didn't have my passports and French wallet. I had left them in the safe at the hotel in Orlando on Monday morning! Panic. Calls to the hotel and finally the receptionist on the phone with me got into her car to bring them to me. Then, the realization that my ticket was for Wednesday, not Tuesday. I was so upset. I gave the receptionist a nice tip and thanked her but did not mention the date mixup! I couldn't. All this had taken quite some time. I would have missed my flight had it really been for Tuesday. I was still upset at having gotten all mixed up. I went to find an inexpensive hotel near the airport with shuttle service (I had turned in the car, of course.), ordered a pizza, and watched TV until I fell asleep. The next morning, I spent about an hour by the pool and took the shuttle back to the airport with lots and lots of time before my flight, so I managed to get off my thank you notes and have a nice lunch.
Back to France and departure almost immediately for four days in Valencia with our Pierwige friends. Not all of them. This time we were a group of 3 couples. Valencia is a beautiful city. The architecture is grandiose and each building is different. It's a change from the Haussmann uniformity of Paris. Different colors, different styles. This was a pleasant break. M. had done all the organizing, so kudos to her, and I just relaxed and got over my jetlag.
Upon return to France, this time, we had the AARO annual general meeting on March 31, which I had had the responsibility of organizing. It went off well. A. had gotten us our guest speaker, Jim Bittermann, who was exceptional. He spoke on the state of the media. It was a refreshing subject -- not American-centric, not Paris or French-centric. The following week, it was the Tax 202 seminar (Tax 101 was on March 6) and I had had the responsibility of that one, too. During that week, we also had a 5-year-old grandson staying with us. We had done some gardening in the gorgeous Spring weather and my back was killing me on Thursday. It still is, in fact.
The first week of Spring break, then, we had S. with us and this past week, he and sister and mother have been at her parents'. It was A's birthday, this week. We went to the Al Thani jewel exhibit at the Grand Palais.
I've done some knitting, but can't sit for long periods because of my back. Writing this has taken me to the limit, today.

The annual trek to Washington

Before going to Washington, I had a nice birthday party the Sunday before, at home. Then, my actual birthday; Paul and I went out to eat after attending an interesting book presentation at the American Library in Paris (Forgotten: the Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes....) On Claire's birthday, I left -- but not straight to DC. I flew to Orlando to visit the cousins, there. The flight to Philly was an hour late and the line to get through immigration a bit long, but since I only had carry-on, I managed to run to the other terminal and catch the flight to Orlando. The plan was that I would rent a car, but when I took out my licence I took a look and discovered Paul's licence! So, no car rental for me and this meant that Paul must be driving with my licence. I caught a cab and went to Maitland for a very agreeable weekend -- an art show, a visit to an orchid farm, a great dinner at home with littler cousins, dinner out, brunch, a movie (Hail Caesar) and then a Sunday flight to DC.
In DC, I had reserved the same airbnb apartment V. and I had shared two years ago in the Adams Morgan section between the Woodley Park and Columbia Heights metro stations. I arrived by about 3 and my roommate, CLF, arrived at about 10 at night. I had time to go to the supermarket, eat, and take a nap. When CLF arrived, we started talking like old friends, already, and sat down to work, assembling the handouts.
I posted blurbs about our days on facebook, only about meetings that I was able to attend:
"Today, we start our rounds of Overseas Americans Week -- AARO and FAWCO. In fact, this year, we have two delegations: this week's and another to follow at the end of the month."
"First meeting done -- my Congressman's office. The Legislative assistant we met with this year seemed more aware of our issues. She had researched FATCA, for example, so my remarks were not new. This year, though, although we present our overall goals, we are concentrating a one issue, which is the passport revocation business in the FAST Act. She acknowledged that the office had received the letter from the Americans Abroad Caucus heads and would see that the Congressman considered signing it."
"Second meeting -- in Mick Mulvaney's office. He's a co-chair of the Americans Abroad Caucus. What I had not realized before was that the bills go to the Representatives' offices until about 36 hours before the vote. They are parsed among office staff for a quick read through. This explains why everything is a reaction to a passed bill rather than proactive. So we, the organizations, are the ones to alert the caucus to the problems, not the other way around."
"After that, the group spllit and I went to my Senators' offices, first Senator Casey, then Senator Toomey. In both cases, very good meetings. In Senator Casey's office, I met with two people, one legislative aide who was very aware of the FATCA issue and "I brought up the passport revocation business and also expressed my disappointment that the Senator was associated with the idea of not allowing people who had renounced (ostensibly for tax reasons) to re-enter the US. She was accompanied by an aide, more an intern, from Australia, who immediately understood the absurdity of citizenship-based-taxation.
"Immediately after that meeting, I rushed off to Senator Toomey's office. He wasn't around in 2010 for the HIREAct, but he is against FATCA. His aide was very interested in the implications of the passport revocation part of the FAST Act and has bookmarked it in order to keep an eye on it...."
"Then a meeting, very nice, in Carolyn Maloney's office and we talked about the letter that is being drafted and should be ready before we leave (fingers crossed) and how to target Representative's offices with high vollume of voters residing overseas."
"After all that, we all met with H. D. P. -- a very good meeting of the minds." This was particularly interesting, as he is an American living in the DC area who had been thinking of moving, which is how he got interested in the issues of living overseas. He's become a real expert, very helpful in the facebook group, always informative, not inflammatory, and he's even drafted comments and testified at Congressional committee meetings.
"Second day -- my first meeting was in Congressman McGovern's office. He is a member of the Americans Abroad Caucus and the meeting went very well. His staffer was aware of our issues and said she would have the Congressman take another look at the bill on the creation of a commission for his sponsorship. And she'll be looking out for the letter from the Caucus co-chairs on the passport revocation issue."
"Second appointment in Representative Carson's office (IN). He is also a member of the Americans Abroad Caucus and the staffer working with the caucus is the legislative director -- a good thing. He told me that he's heard from many constituents abroad about FATCA and other issues. Proof that your letters count.  Write to your representatives even if they sometimes seem unresponsive, volume will make them sit up and listen, eventually."
"We all got to Representative Beyer's office. He's the former ambassador to Switzerland and now the representative in northern Virginia, around Washington. He's very aware of the problems faced by those of us abroad and or constituents relocating from the US."
"In the afternoon, we had back to back meetings in Senator Rand Paul's and Senator  Ted Cruz's offices. Good meetings.Yes, Keith, we mentioned the conversation you had about the social taxes on income. We found out where Gray, Paul's tax expert from last year went (to a think tank); we had a very good discussion with Cruz's deputy legislative director, who is very much aware of all the tax issues we have and the discussions going on about territorial taxation for corporations and equivalent resident-based-taxation for individuals. He is also aware of the passport revocation implications for US citizens who live abroad."
"Third day -- Meeting 1 done at the Tax Foundation, where good questions were asked and they were truly interested in the individual taxpayer's situation."
".... The meeting at the Tax Foundation was good and concise, so we didn't have to rush to the next meeting in Senator Rubio's office. His aide told us that the Senator was firmly in the "RBT" group. Good to know. He was also concerned about the passport revocation punishment in the FAST Act."
"Then, we all headed to a meeting in Senator Crapo's office, where the implications of citizenship-based-taxation on home-based businesses was not lost.The Senator is in favor of territorial taxation for corporations and the jump to residence-based-taxation for individuals is a tiny step.
After lunch, we headed to the American Banker's Association for another good exchange. Of course, they have no influence over foreign institutions, but since US banks have been clearing out US citizens with foreign addresses, it is good to have these exchanges to see what we can do to help the US banks see the market potential of having us as customers rather than leaving us without accounts."
"Okay, sorry for the lack of updates today, but we were on the move all day.
We started with caucus members' offices: Reps.Capuano (MA), Davis (CA), and Doyle (PA). Again, they all emphasized how important it is to have contituents writing to them. Even if you think they are brushing you off and sending you replies that have nothing to do the subject, keep it up."
"We had time before the next scheduled meeting, so we stopped by Mia Love's office. In this (Facebook) group, earlier this week, someone had posted the article about her proposing a bill that would make bills stick to a single subject. It's a laudable idea, but one that will not really get far, since every expense requires a "pay for", and that guarantees unrelated subjects getting into a bill. However, it seemed to us that perhaps she might be interested in the Americans Abroad Caucus -- that she would see how these other subjects tend to affect us. Her chief of staff came out and was very, very interested."
"Then we stopped by Steven Russell's office, on the suggestion of T.M., and again had a most interesting meeting."
"Then, it was time for a brisk walk over the hill to Senator Hatch's office, where the two staffers we met with asked very pertinent questions. We wanted to visit that office because he was instrumental in the FAST Act. They couldn't tell us who, precisely, came up with the passport revocation provision and they were suitably appalled at the effect it could have on non-US residents. They asked lots of questions."
"Our last meeting on the hill was with Senator Sanders staffer on the budget committee and again, he truly wanted to understand the difficulties due to FATCA, due to our system of taxation. He asked good questions and will talk to the boss."
"Our last meeting on the hill was with Senator Sanders' staffer on the budget committee and again, he truly wanted to understand the difficulties due to FATCA, due to our system of taxation. He asked good questions and will talk to the boss."
"The day ended meeting with our old friend who has become a commissioner on the Election Assistance Commission. Discussion of voting, rather than taxes, for a change!"
"This morning (Friday) -- light schedule -- we had an appointment at Rep.Connolly's office and had a very constructive meeting with suggestions how to be more effective, how to, perhaps, change the language of the position paper on the passport revocation, address committee staffers of upcoming bills... We need  to better monitor upcoming bills."
"We stopped in to "report" back to Reps.Maloney and Mulvaney's offices. And then, we had time to stop at Rep. Perlmutter's office because over in the Americans Expatriates group, one of his constituents had mentioned whom to contact. I've finished for this week. Off to see my aunt and uncle in Bethesda and then return home tomorrow. It's been a good week. Please write to your representatives. Be polite, and diplomatic, and be to the point. Inform them. We can't see them all, although we hope next year, with a new Congressional Session starting, we will be a larger delegation to visit more offices."
There were only three of us for this Overseas Americans Week, so two more are going this weekend for three days of meetings next week. I spent some time preparing those appointments, too. And I still have to do my thank you notes for all the meetings I was in. Oof!

OAW - Some personal thoughts

Here we are, the week has flown.  It's really time to write an update.  Aside from seeing our own Representatives' and Senators' offices, most of our meetings were concentrated on the tax and banking staffers of the tax, finance, and banking committees. We have also seen the National Taxpayer Advocate's staff, the Joint Committee on Taxation, Treasury,  and two of the Senate Banking Committee staff.

Will there be comprehensive tax reform soon? Unlikely. Just as residence-based-taxation is a concept that certain offices find attractive,  the consensus is that its time has not come, yet. It seems ingrained in American exceptional-ism.

Will FATCA be repealed? Well, Senator Rand Paul introduced a bill on Wednesday that would repeal at least some sections of FATCA, the sections that are an invasion of privacy.  John and Lucy met with Rand Paul's FATCA expert on Tuesday and were very impressed by him. In any event, as John says, the train has left the station. Many other countries have jumped on the FATCA bandwagon, so whether you call it FATCA or something else, automatic exchange of financial information will happen worldwide and, according to the people at Treasury, the discrimination will stop.

Could FATCA be tweaked to allow the “same country exclusion”? For the first time since we started talking about this idea (this is my third year and it was on the agenda before I started coming to DC on these OAW campaigns), it has been suggested that our local banks might not agree with it as it puts a burden on them to certify our “bona fide  residence”. We need to find out.

Can the threshold of the FBAR be raised? Who would be responsible for that? Treasury? Congress? It's a hot potato.

We are visiting the right offices. They appreciate our positions. They want us not to give up.

And what about bank discrimination on the part of US banks and brokerages against Americans with foreign addresses. Is it FATCA related? Does it have something to do with Dodd-Frank? The S.E.C.? We have never gotten an answer from the banks and brokerages. Can the Congressional offices get answers?

We do sometimes manage to slip in some of our other issues: raising the threshold of exclusion for social security income, for example, but this year is really dedicated to the tax and banking concerns.

What's next for AARO? We need to collect documentation that FATCA is the cause of discrimination against Americans with foreign accounts and we need to get documentation explaining the reason for US financial institutions discriminating against Americans with foreign addresses. We have the documents that show the discrimination, but very few say why. Send documents to banking@aaro.org. 

Overseas Americans Week 2014 Recap Video

I have neglected this blog for a month! And I'm not going to write, now. I just want you to go to the AARO website and check out the video of the recap we did last month at Joe Allen's, in Paris. I'm not embedding it because I really want to you go to the website and get a pre-rollout peek at changes. So, after the video, take a stroll through the site and send in your constructive comments.
Overseas Americans Week Recap

OAW - final

The other evening, coming back from the FVAP meeting, I devoted the entire post to voting from abroad. I didn't mean to ignore Treasury and the American Bankers Association. Those were important and interesting meetings. We talked about bank discrimination, both on the US side, which seemed to surprise the ABA people, and on the foreign side, due to FATCA. From both meetings, we took away the impression that our problems are understood. There is sympathy. There is understanding. But FATCA will not go away. The idea of excluding the accounts in our countries of residence is interesting, but will not come about immediately, if ever. Somehow, the discrimination we are experiencing will go away when all the countries in the world are exchanging bank information with all the others. There will be no need to single us out! I don't like the sound of that, but I see the logic. As nice as everyone was, as sympathetic as they were, I still wonder what I'll end up doing.
This is the Alexander Calder sculpture in the Senate Hart Building.

OAW - Day 2, Day 3, no time to write

There's the objective of keeping everyone posted on Overseas Americans Week. Then there's the reality of just not being able to sit down and write something. Forget about tweeting -- it's just not for me. Look at the logistics. If I leave the wifi on all the time on my phone, I'll wear down the battery. Plus, we don't always have decent wifi. I've got a pre-paid card (and in the US, that's not a really cheap option, just marginally less expensive than the 7-day plan I could have gotten on SFR with my French number) so I don't want to leave it on data mode, either. We don't have time to get out the computer all the time, either. I have managed to sit down, maybe once during the "work" day, each day, to connect myself, post a facebook update, or something.. But I also want to take the time to assemble my notes, so I can't spend all that time on internet.
I do want to thank the readers who have tweeted, referring their followers to my posts, and those who have shared on Facebook. My readership has spiked. My blog is not really intended for wide readership, but on these occasions, I do appreciate it.
Back to these last two days. Tuesday was a day full of meetings. We can't give the details of the talks. We have our position papers and this year we are talking a lot about banking discrimination both from the US side and the foreign side. I think we all know about the banking discrimination. I've talked about it enough; so has Victoria. And we'll continue to gripe. And when you talk about the discrimination on the part of foreign financial institutions, you talk about FATCA.
The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Traveler Card. (APEC card) is something new. The US is one of the 27 partners in APEC and the card is to allow business travelers from member economies to have streamlined immigration procedures when entering member territories. All the member economies have issued the cards except the US, which passed the law authorizing the cards in 2011. Homeland Security has not yet issued the cards, so we are asking legislators to put some pressure on. This has raised lots of eyebrows. It's something to aid commerce. US commerce.
The staff members we meet in legislators offices are very receptive to our positions. It's surprising how many of them have parents, siblings, friends living in foreign countries who have let them know already of our issues. They just didn't realize how widespread they were. Since I was privileged to have participated in this last year, it's also nice to go into some offices and see familiar faces -- we're bringing them up to date.
There are other meetings with administration representatives, like the one with Nina Olson on Monday and the one at the State Department this morning. I was at a meeting in Senator Toomey's office this morning, so I missed the State Department meeting, but I know it lasted a full hour longer than was scheduled, because I was saving seats for everyone for a long, long, long time at the Longworth cafeteria. That's always an important meeting where the citizenship questions are raised, and consular services....
I did mention spotty internet at the beginning. I interrupted this post for dinner and had no internet afterwards. So, Day 4 is dawning and I'm sending this off before we get cut off again.

Making appointments for March

First of all, here's a picture of one of the Magnolia trees on our street, taken about 10 days ago, still at the beginning of the month! And in the States, it's still freezing! Unfortunately, that blue sky has disappeared in a haze of yellow smog. The sun comes through, but the sky is ugly. Details at any distance are blurry. The other day, from the library, just a block over from the Eiffel Tower, the tower was not clear.

High school mate, C, was in town last week and after work, she went off to tango. I accompanied her one evening, even though I don't dance; I watched the feet go by and was entranced. Another evening, she invited my friend R and me to come to the studio to observe the dubbing work. (I love that -- never get bored!) Then she and R went off to tango and I came home. They had a fair dance lesson, not great, but really hit it off and didn't end their evening of gabfest until almost midnight. 

AARO has the first of its two tax seminars during the week. I didn't need to go to 101, but because I am one of the event organizers, I did go. I always learn something, anyway. It motivated me to finish up my FBAR form, which I did just before opening the blog post. This year the FBAR must be done on the pdf form one downloads from the site. You can then fill it out on your computer, without being on line. I got out last year's FBAR so that I had all the bank info ready and I had already gotten the highest balance during the year figure onto my spreadsheet and converted into USD, so I was ready to fill it out. It still took almost an hour. Once it's filled out properly, you click on the "Home" tab of the file and it connects to the website for e-filing. You get a confirmation notice, which I printed up, as I also printed out my file. I don't know why I actually printed them -- old habits die hard -- I have the file and the confirmation saved on my hard drive. So, that's done. Next step is to try to get an estimate on my taxes, because I will owe more for 2013. I get an automatic extension for filing but still have to pay (overpay) by April 15, so I don't get stuck with a penalty.

During the week, I had to tackle the appointments for Overseas Americans Week. I was asked to hold off to start with, so I feel I got a late start. I wasn't as free as I had been earlier. I'm frustrated, because next week, it should be done -- then we go!

I'm getting excited about the trip. I won't see T&B immediately, during OAW, but will get a chance on the return leg. I'm staying an extra week in order to go up to Pittsburgh, family visit there, and then back to DC. J tells me we may get to go to the Pirates' season opening home game. I hope we can get tickets. And they've got tickets for the opera the next evening! Sounds great. 

A Visit to the Philadelphia Election Board

You may remember that I had some issues, as they say, with voting back in the fall (http://ellenlebelle.blogspot.com/2012/11/lots-and-lots-of-little-things.html). Since I was privileged to be going to Overseas Americans Week for AARO, I managed to start my trip in Philadelphia and had an appointment with the supervisor and legal counsel of the Philadelphia Board of Elections on Friday, Feb. 8.
The legal counsel remembered me; he's the one who had given all the answers in the former supervisor's replies to my emails.
I did not want this to be a meeting of a litany of complaints on my part; I wanted to hear what the election board had to say that might improve things all around. They were not able to tell me what percentage of registered voters were overseas voters, but they said it was a very low number, probably not even 1%. On the Overseas Vote Foundation's site, and I believe on the other online sites, when you fill out the form for your registration/ballot request, you are asked if it is for all the elections in the year or just one. I always check the box for all the elections. Also, I follow the recommendation of making my request every year, even if no federal election is scheduled, because you never know when there might be a special election (Massachusetts voters will be electing a new senator in June this year). You are supposed to be able to do it this way -- every year, for every federal election according to the UMOVA rules (And Pennsylvania has enacted UMOVA). Well, the election board doesn't like that. They prefer to receive the registration/ballot requests before each election (primary and again for the general election) no earlier than 7 to 8 weeks before the election. Anyway, that might explain why I got the primary ballot in time but had to phone in the fall to get the general election ballot.
The next problem we addressed was the addressing of the ballot I finally got. Here, I have to take OVF to task, and I bet the other sites are similar. When you are asked for your home (foreign address), it prints up on the form in US format, with the postal code after the city name. Perhaps their programmers could reprogram it so that you put in your country name first and the form would then conform to the format for entering information would correspond correctly and would print correctly. This is what many commercial business sites now do. A quick solution we came up with at the meeting was to attach self-addressed labels (with its adhesive backing intact, of course) for the board to use on its envelope when sending out the ballots. They assured me that stapling these to the form would not invalidate the form. This would put the burden of getting the address correct on the voter, who should know how to write his address.
We also talked about the fact that the Pennsylvania website for tacking your registration and/or ballot status reported incorrectly that I was not registered. It also reproted that Anne was not registered , and she didn't bother to send in the Federal Absentee Ballot based on that misinformation. It turns out that we overseas voters are not the only ones unhappy with that site. Every county in Pennsyvania has complaints about it and it doesn't matter if it's a Republican or Democrat-run county. Not only that, but it seems that many states have faulty tracking. Since tracking is mandatory for the states, they should work on improving it!
These issues also came up in discussions on the Hill during OAW, so I'm very glad I had this input. I want to thank the people I met with in Philadelphia for the meeting.

OAW (Overseas Americans Week)

It was an exciting week, especially for a newbie, like me. Our week started on Sunday evening with a get-together to make sure all the meetings were covered, that there were no conflicting appointments, and that, when possible, someone from each organization (AARO, ACA, and FAWCO) was in on each meeting. It was also the first occasion for some of us to put faces on the people we'd been emailing. To start, Julie, who was our scheduler for this week, did a wonderful job and continued to do so throughout the week as the calendar of appointments needed tweaking.
My main job, as a newbie, was to attend as many meetings as I could and to quietly take notes. I did pipe up occasionally, but it is better in a meeting with one staffer and 3 or 4 of us for only one of us to be presenting our issues. I am still not finished with my notes for the last day, but I did want to write my impressions this morning.
First, we have many topics of interest. This year, we agreed to try to limit ourselves to presenting only taxation, banking and voting issues. FATCA, which is now an acronym well-known to Americans living overseas, is the link between taxation and banking, thus bundling taxation, banking and FATCA into a single major sore point. (If you don't know, FATCA, stands for Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and just click on the link if you really want the details.)
ACA has written a proposal for residence-based-taxation and AARO and FAWCO support this proposal, so that was the main issue at most meetings. Everyone in Washington is talking about tax reform and the president mentioned it, himself, in the State of the Union speech on Tuesday. It's on everyone's mind, but reform will not even begin to be discussed until after the whole business of "the sequester" is over. What residence-based-taxation means is that we Americans who live and work outside the United States would be taxed in the same way as non-resident aliens. Income earned on assets in the US and income earned in the US would be subject to a withholding tax, between 15% and 30%, depending on tax treaties with countries. So, the US would get that tax revenue and the resident abroad would be able to take tax credits in his or her home country. It would be so simple. There are points to deal with how to define a resident overseas (not  military or State Department employee who has US-sourced income, nor residents of determined tax havens, nor short-term stints abroad (study programs, sabbaticals, etc.). Accounts in the home country would not be subject to FATCA regulations and there would be no more problems of non-reciprocity of retirement accounts. Accounts in countries where one may have left accounts whilst moving around would still be considered foreign accounts. And there were questions about the treatment of accounts in home countries of US-resident aliens, but it seems that, as now, for residents in the US, alien or citizen, all accounts elsewhere would be foreign. (Victoria Ferauge has just written a piece on the FATCA meeting at OECD this week in Paris. There may be hope.)
FATCA is half of the banking problem. Foreign banks will have to comply with I.R.S. regulations to report on the accounts of US tax-persons (citizens, green-card holders). If there is an inter-governmental agreement, the reporting will be done through the governments and if not, the banks will report directly to the I.R.S. This opens up a Pandora's box of problems: reporting complications for the US-tax persons, reporting costs for the banks, information security concerns.... The easy solution for banks is to simply get rid of US-tax persons' accounts, especially investment accounts. The result is that we are being shut out of accounts and business partnerships and jobs that involve signatory authority. It affects personal lives and business. It affects business development for US companies trying to export abroad. If residence-based-taxation were to become the norm, as it is in every other country (except Eritrea, North Korea, and the Philippines), FATCA would no longer apply to our local accounts because we would no longer be US-tax persons.
The other half of the banking problem is in the Patriot Act, which requires banks and brokerages to "know your customer". They seem to interpret to mean the customer must live in the US. Therefore they are shutting out their customers who now live abroad and they haven't allowed such customers to open accounts for years. Some are closing US-held retirement accounts arbitrarily, subjecting the customer to early-withdrawal penalties and taxes. There is a letter from the State Department and another from the treasury saying that this is a misinterpretation and we can have accounts in the US, but the banks are still making the commercial decision against us. So, if you can't have an account in your home country and you can't maintain an account in the US, you are in a real bind. Of course, the FATCA regulations may yet apply to US banks if there is reciprocity between countries.
The proposal was very well-received in both chambers by both parties and by the heads of the key committees. It's a good start.
What else?

Carolyn Maloney and Representative Honda have co-sponsored HR597, a bill to establish a commission how Federal laws and policies affect Unites States citizens living in foreign countries. We are encouraging all to write their representatives to support this bill, especially if the representative is on one of these committees: House Education and the Workforce; House Energy and Commerce; House Financial Services; House House Administration; House Oversight and Government Reform; House Judiciary; House Ways and Means. In our meetings at the Senate side, we asked the staffers to consider advising their Senators to introduce a sister bill. Again, in both houses, on both sides of the aisle, this bill was well-received.
AARO presented Ms. Maloney the plaque for the award we gave her last summer. At the time, we gave her a certificate, in Paris. We then had a good, long, discussion with her, talking about the pleasant reception her bill seems to be getting, the need for more sponsors, the work of the Americans Abroad Caucus, and our objectives for OAW. I don't have a picture of that; I was hoping to have received the others' photos. 
We also reported that overseas voting was improving. Unfortunately, many voters did not receive their ballots in time, again, and we expressed concern that this kind of problem could get worse if the postal service does away with Saturday pick-up, sorting, and delivery as scheduled. The Election Assistance Commission may not survive cutbacks and there is no indication of what might take its place or how its work could be taken over by other entities.
There was a meeting at the State Department to discuss citizenship issues. There are what they call efficiency bills, slight modifications to existing legislation, to allow single US-citizen mothers to be able to transmit citizenship more easily, but no change is in the works for single fathers. The whole issue of how unwed parents transmit will not be overturned as it would negate the citizenship of all those who had acquired citizenship under it.
We each had 6, 7, 8 meetings a day for four days. There were some left-over meetings to go to on Friday that I was unable to attend for a grand total of 82 meetings. I was very glad to be part of it and hope to be able to go next time, not as a newbie, but as someone ready to present our interests. It would be nice, some day, to be able to say there are no issues. Wishful thinking.