American Citizens Abroad Global Foundation is a tax exempt public charity. Its purposes are to promote the well-being of US citizens living outside the US, to identify issues and activities that affect them, to develop information about these subjects, to provide this information to Americans abroad and to governments, including the US government, and to disseminate this information widely. In short, it is a supporter of education and research on issues affecting Americans abroad. Learn more about us here.

Why Research and Education Are Important

The U.S. Congress and the Administration have very little information about U.S. citizens living and working overseas. At one time the U.S. Commerce Department kept a count of the number of U.S. citizens working overseas, albeit most in U.S. companies or as small to medium sized U.S. independent businesses. This practice stopped over ten years ago. No other U.S. government agency keeps “tabs” on U.S. citizens overseas. The U.S. State Department makes rough estimates on the community for Embassy and Consulate staffing and Department of Defense (DOD) purposes but has no central registry. In fact, The U.S. State Department will no longer be providing public estimates on the community size as it has in the past. The IRS and U.S. Treasury have some numbers of tax filings but not on community size and without knowing the size of the community it is impossible to know how many individuals and families should be filing U.S. taxes from overseas.

Data and solid numbers are not just important for taxes and compliance. Without knowledge about the community, its size, its demographics and other data, it is impossible to judge how U.S. regulations and laws will affect them. This makes data on U.S. citizens overseas essential and the basis for much of the advocacy work that ACAGF and ACA, Inc. undertake. U.S. citizens overseas are not required to register with any government agency when they move overseas. This will not change any time soon so there is a need for independent organizations like ACAGF to field research studies about the community. ACAGF’s reputation, with our two professionally fielded research studies, is an essential key that opens the doors of the Congress and the Administration to our staff. ACAGF provides offices with the data they need to understand how regulations and laws will affect the community.

Educating both the U.S. Government and the community of U.S. citizens overseas is equally as important as fielding research studies. Because U.S. citizens overseas make up small percentages in any one Congressional district, it is hard for Representatives to hear about their issues. If Congress isn’t hearing about the issues from their constituents and reporting on these, then that means the Administration also lacks knowledge. This is where ACAGF's educational efforts alongside ACA's advocacy efforts play an important role. Often offices don’t become aware of an issue until after legislation is written and serious problems arise. The community often is unaware of how legislative and regulatory proposals will affect them, especially when they lack access to U.S. news reporting or when something that will affect them is buried deep into a piece of legislation. This is why educating the Congress, the Administration, and the community, by hosting webinars, round tables and conferences is so important.

To find out more about our research check out the "Our Work" page.