AARO’s members have published articles and papers on a wide variety of topics relevant to the issues faced by overseas Americans
Doris Speer and Paul Atkinson
Doris Speer, an international M&A lawyer formerly the Deputy General Counsel of Alstom, and now a law instructor, became a Director of AARO to focus on advocacy, mainly in the social security, banking and tax areas. Speer has been President of AARO since 2022.
Paul Atkinson, formerly of the OECD working on macroeconomic policy issues, is a Director and the Banking Committee Chairman of AARO, working on banking and advocacy relating to wider public policy issues, notably tax, which affect access to the financial system.
Improving Expats’ Access to Savings and Retirement Plans
Speer and Atkinson authored an article, published in Tax Notes on October 3, 2022, summarizing the problems Americans living and working abroad encounter in saving for retirement and suggesting ways of modifying pending legislation to improve the situation.
Retirement Plans/Tax Notes/Oct 3, 2022
Laura Snyder
Laura Snyder is a Paris-based lawyer and advocate for taxpayer rights and a Director of AARO. She is a cofounder of Stop Extraterritorial American Taxation and a former international member of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, a federal advisory committee to the Internal Revenue Service.
Discriminatory Taxes and Congress: Do as I Say, Not as I Do Snyder explains why congressional complaints about allegedly discriminatory taxes imposed on Americans by foreign governments are hypocritical.
Discriminatory Taxes/Tax Notes/Aug. 21, 2023
Can Extraterritorial Taxation Be Rationalized?
Snyder challenges the multiple rationales offered for the U.S extraterritorial tax system.
Can Extraterritorial Taxation Be Rationalized?/The Tax Lawyer/June 15, 2023
Overseas Americans Are Ordinary People, Not FATCAts
Snyder examines a recent IRS working paper on the wealth of U.S. persons held outside the United States and argues that it confirms that most overseas Americans are ordinary people with ordinary income and wealth who should not be subject to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
Not FATCAts/Tax Notes/May 22, 2023
The Unacknowledged Realities of Extraterritorial Taxation Snyder explains the full import, complexities, and consequences of the U.S. extraterritorial tax system.
Unacknowledged Realities/Southern Illinois Univ. Law J./May 16, 2023
Should Overseas Americans Be Required to Buy Their Freedom?
Snyder and her co-authors Karen Alpert and John Richardson argue that the United States must end its practice of taxing the foreign source income of U.S. citizens resident abroad, and they challenge the idea that any proposal to eliminate U.S. extraterritorial taxation must be revenue neutral.
Buy Their Freedom/Tax Notes/July 12, 2021
Mission Impossible: Extraterritorial Taxation and the IRS
Snyder and her co-authors Karen Alpert and John Richardson argue that the Internal Revenue Service has failed to fulfill its mandate under the Taxpayer First Act for Americans living overseas, thus underscoring the imperative for the Department of Treasury to take action to eliminate extraterritorial taxation.
Mission Impossible/Tax Notes/March 22, 2021
Taxing the American Emigrant
Snyder explains how American emigrants are stigmatized and how their stigmatization must, like other forms of stigmatization, be identified and held unacceptable. Otherwise, there is little hope for change.
Taxing the American Emigrant/The Tax Lawyer/Feb. 26, 2021
A Simple Regulatory Fix for Citizenship Taxation
Snyder and her co-authors John Richardson and Karen Alpert explain the simple regulatory actions that the Department of Treasury can take that would, in the absence of legislative change, improve the lives of Americans living overseas and permit the Internal Revenue Service to better focus its limited resources to more effectively administer the U.S. tax system.
A Simple Regulatory Fix/Tax Notes/Oct. 12, 2020
The Implications of Tax Residence for Human Rights
Snyder and her co-authors Karen Alpert and John Richardson discuss tax residence in the context of human rights and explain why international consensus is needed that individuals should generally be tax resident in only one jurisdiction at a time.
Implications of Tax Residence/AFAANZ 2020 Annual Conference /July 5-7, 2020
The Criminalization of the American Emigrant
Snyder explains the connection between U.S. taxation and banking policies that punish American emigrants and deep-seated prejudices against people associated with other places.
