IRS National Taxpayer Advocate on US expats

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The IRS National Taxpayer Advocate, in one of 2 reports last year to Congress she is required by law to send every year, criticizes the IRS for refusing to create a same-country exception for financial reporting requirements for U.S. citizens residing abroad, which would substantially reduce their reporting burden. As it stands now, an American living in, say, Canada who owns an account at a Canadian bank and has a Canadian pension fund is treated with the same presumption of guilt as a wealthy American living in the US who has bank accounts overseas. From the IRS's point of view, the American living abroad is treated with the same level of suspicion of tax evasion as an American here at home holding foreign accounts.

Unfortunately, except for the Taxpayer Advocate, the IRS (and I must add, FATCA advocates in Congress do the same) refuses to even acknowledge the problem, because of their bad assumptions about Americans living abroad:

https://taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/Media/ ... _FATCA.pdf

As much as I am not a fan of Trump or the GOP, here's to hoping the change of party in Congress can lead to some progress on the issue--and hoping the Democrats don't try to disingenuously paint all attempts at reform as only helping wealthy "fat cats". Working-class and middle-class Americans living abroad have been hugely burdened by the compliance requirements imposed by Congress and the IRS. Americans back home should remember that they are just trying to live their lives and make a living like the rest of us.