WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Financial Technology Association (FTA) and six other trade associations today wrote to Senate Finance Committee leaders Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) urging them not to include a remittance tax and citizenship verification requirement in the upcoming reconciliation bill. The trades argued that this provision is a massive invasion of privacy that would harm hardworking Americans, including active duty service members and Americans living, working, and studying abroad, and hinder our nation’s ability to fight transnational crime.
“We should not be asking everyday Americans to hand over their sensitive personal information or pay a tax to send money to family serving overseas or studying abroad,” said Penny Lee, President and CEO of the Financial Technology Association. “This proposal not only infringes on Americans’ civil liberties, but also makes it harder to combat transnational crime by pushing cross-border payments into unregulated channels. We urge the Senate to remove this counterproductive and overreaching provision from the reconciliation bill.”
Under the proposal, American citizens would be required to submit personal information to financial institutions and the Internal Revenue Service in order to avoid paying a new tax on cross-border payments. This would impose an undue tax burden on everyday Americans, who would be forced into more complicated tax treatment for sending money abroad or miss the tax break when filing, a common result of poorly planned tax complications. Many Americans might also struggle to provide a passport or birth certificate to prove their citizenship.
Leading policy experts have condemned the remittance tax proposal and citizenship verification requirement, including:
- Jim Harper, non-resident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, writes: “This remittance tax has it all: More forms to fill out, more data to hand over to private companies, more private companies acting as tax collectors or law enforcers, and more complexity in our tax forms . . . These kinds of proposals have been pressed for decades right along with the growth of administrative government.”
- Stan Veuger and Kyle Pomerleau, Senior Fellows at the American Enterprise Institute, concur, arguing that the remittance tax is a form of “financial repression.”
To read the full joint trades letter, click here. The other signers were the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), INFiN, A Financial Services Alliance (INFiN), the American Fintech Council (AFC), the Money Services Business Association (MSBA), the Innovative Payments Association (IPA), and The Money Services Round Table (TMSRT). The joint trades previously sent a letter to House Ways and Means Committee leadership urging them to oppose the remittance provision.
ABOUT US
The Financial Technology Association (FTA) is a network of fintech leaders shaping the future of finance. We champion the power of technology-driven financial services to catalyze innovation and advocate for modernized policies and regulations that reflect the digital transformation.
FTA, Joint Trades Urge Senate to Oppose Remittance Tax Proposal
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Financial Technology Association (FTA) and six other trade associations today wrote to Senate Finance Committee leaders Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) urging them not to include a remittance tax and citizenship verification requirement in the upcoming reconciliation bill. The trades argued that this provision is a massive invasion of privacy that would harm hardworking Americans, including active duty service members and Americans living, working, and studying abroad, and hinder our nation’s ability to fight transnational crime.
“We should not be asking everyday Americans to hand over their sensitive personal information or pay a tax to send money to family serving overseas or studying abroad,” said Penny Lee, President and CEO of the Financial Technology Association. “This proposal not only infringes on Americans’ civil liberties, but also makes it harder to combat transnational crime by pushing cross-border payments into unregulated channels. We urge the Senate to remove this counterproductive and overreaching provision from the reconciliation bill.”
Under the proposal, American citizens would be required to submit personal information to financial institutions and the Internal Revenue Service in order to avoid paying a new tax on cross-border payments. This would impose an undue tax burden on everyday Americans, who would be forced into more complicated tax treatment for sending money abroad or miss the tax break when filing, a common result of poorly planned tax complications. Many Americans might also struggle to provide a passport or birth certificate to prove their citizenship.
Leading policy experts have condemned the remittance tax proposal and citizenship verification requirement, including:
To read the full joint trades letter, click here. The other signers were the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), INFiN, A Financial Services Alliance (INFiN), the American Fintech Council (AFC), the Money Services Business Association (MSBA), the Innovative Payments Association (IPA), and The Money Services Round Table (TMSRT). The joint trades previously sent a letter to House Ways and Means Committee leadership urging them to oppose the remittance provision.
ABOUT US
The Financial Technology Association (FTA) is a network of fintech leaders shaping the future of finance. We champion the power of technology-driven financial services to catalyze innovation and advocate for modernized policies and regulations that reflect the digital transformation.