I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5432 

To create a short form tax return to simplify the return process for certain 

taxpayers living abroad, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023 

Mr. BEYER (for himself, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. TRONE, Mr. NADLER, and 

Ms. TITUS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, 

in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To create a short form tax return to simplify the return 

process for certain taxpayers living abroad, and for other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Tax Simplification for 

5 Americans Abroad Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. SHORT FORM FOR CERTAIN TAXPAYERS LIVING 

2 ABROAD. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Treasury (or 

4 the Secretary’s delegate) shall make available a form for 

5 use by specified individuals to file the return of tax im6 posed by chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 

7 Such form shall replace Internal Revenue Service Forms 

8 1040, 2555, 1116, 8938, 5471, 3520, 3520A, 8621, 8858, 

9 8865, 926, 708, FinCEN Form 114, and other forms for 

10 disclosing income, assets, deductions, and offsets, and 

11 shall be as similar to Form 1040–EZ as it existed in 2017, 

12 except that the form shall be sufficient to allow an indi13 vidual to, with respect to a taxable year— 

14 (1) demonstrate that such individual is a quali15 fied individual under section 911(d)(1) of the Inter16 nal Revenue Code of 1986, 

17 (2) declare foreign income described in section 

18 911 of such Code, 

19 (3) characterize income based on source, includ20 ing— 

21 (A) wages, 

22 (B) self-employment income or business in23 come, 

24 (C) contract income, 

25 (D) foreign government benefits, 

26 (E) pension and other retirement income, 


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1 (F) scholarships and fellowship grants, 

2 (G) interest, 

3 (H) dividends, and 

4 (I) capital gains, 

5 (4) claim the standard deduction and, if appli6 cable, the child tax credit, 

7 (5) declare foreign taxes paid or accrued, and 

8 (6) declare United States source income from 

9 retirement, pension and Social Security benefits to 

10 be treated as sourced from treaty income where tax 

11 has been paid upon distribution. 

12 (b) SPECIFIED INDIVIDUAL.— 

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this section, 

14 the term ‘‘specified individual’’ means, with respect 

15 to a taxable year, an individual— 

16 (A) who is a qualified individual under sec17 tion 911(d)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 

18 1986, and 

19 (B) who declares— 

20 (i) a gross income of not more than 

21 $400,000, and 

22 (ii) a tax liability of $0. 

23 (2) INFLATION ADJUSTMENT.—In the case of 

24 any taxable year beginning after 2024, the $400,000 


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1 amount in paragraph (1)(B)(i) shall be increased by 

2 an amount equal to— 

3 (A) such dollar amount, multiplied by 

4 (B) the cost-of-living adjustment deter5 mined under section 1(f)(3) of the Internal 

6 Revenue Code of 1986 for the calendar year in 

7 which the taxable year begins, determined by 

8 substituting ‘‘2023’’ for ‘‘2016’’ in subpara9 graph (A)(ii) thereof. 

10 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The form required by sub11 section (a) shall be made available for taxable years begin12 ning one year after the date of the enactment of this Act. 

13 SEC. 3. EXPANSION OF INCOME ALLOWED AS FOREIGN 

14 EARNED INCOME. 

15 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 911 of the Internal Rev16 enue Code of 1986 is amended— 

17 (1) in subsection (b)(1)(B), by striking clause 

18 (i) and by redesignating clauses (ii) through (iv) as 

19 clause (i) through (iii), respectively, 

20 (2) in subsection (b)(1)(A), by striking ‘‘attrib21 utable to services performed by such individual’’ and 

22 inserting ‘‘attributable to services performed by such 

23 individual or benefits received by such individual’’, 

24 (3) in subsection (d)(2), by striking ‘‘wages, 

25 salaries, or professional fees’’ and inserting ‘‘wages, 


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1 salaries, professional fees, pensions, scholarships, fel2 lowship grants, distributions from retirement funds, 

3 or payments received by the taxpayer with respect to 

4 disability, unemployment, family medical leave, or 

5 childcare’’, and 

6 (4) in subsection (e)(2), by striking ‘‘Except 

7 with the consent of the Secretary, any taxpayer who 

8 makes such a revocation for any taxable year may 

9 not make another election under this section for any 

10 subsequent taxable year before the 6th taxable year 

11 after the taxable year for which such revocation was 

12 made.’’ 

13 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

14 subsection (a) shall apply to taxable years beginning after 

15 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

16 SEC. 4. INFORMATION RELATING TO SPECIFIED FOREIGN 

17 FINANCIAL ASSETS. 

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 5314 of title 31, United 

19 States Code, is amended— 

20 (1) by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as 

21 subsections (d) and (e), respectively; and 

22 (2) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol23 lowing: 

24 ‘‘(b) SPECIFIED FOREIGN FINANCIAL ASSETS.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—If a person makes a trans2 action that would require reporting under subsection 

3 (a), and such transaction involves a specified foreign 

4 financial asset, the reporting requirements described 

5 in subsection (a) shall— 

6 ‘‘(A) only apply if the transaction involves 

7 an amount that exceeds the aggregate value 

8 threshold set forth in section 6038D of the In9 ternal Revenue Code of 1986; and 

10 ‘‘(B) be satisfied by attaching to such per11 son’s return of tax for such taxable year the in12 formation required under section 6038D of the 

13 Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 

14 ‘‘(2) SPECIFIED FOREIGN FINANCIAL ASSET.— 

15 For purposes of this section, the term ‘specified for16 eign financial asset’ has the meaning given the term 

17 in section 6038D(b) of the 2211 Internal Revenue 

18 Code of 1986.’’. 

19 (b) INFORMATION WITH RESPECT TO SPECIFIED

20 FOREIGN FINANCIAL ASSETS.—Section 6038D of the In21 ternal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended— 

22 (1) in subsection (b)— 

23 (A) by striking ‘‘For purposes of this sec24 tion,’’ and inserting ‘‘Except as provided in 

25 paragraph (2), for purposes of this section,’’, 


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1 (B) in paragraph (2), by redesignating 

2 subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) as clauses (i), 

3 (ii), and (iii), respectively, 

4 (C) by redesignating paragraphs (1) and 

5 (2) as subparagraphs (A) and (B), respectively, 

6 (D) by striking ‘‘For purposes’’ and insert7 ing: 

8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes’’, and 

9 (E) by adding at the end the following new 

10 paragraph: 

11 ‘‘(2) CERTAIN ACCOUNTS EXEMPT FROM FINAN12 CIAL REPORTING.—An account is exempt from the 

13 reporting requirement under subsection (a) if it is 

14 an account— 

15 ‘‘(A) the maximum balance of which does 

16 not exceed $600 for the entire duration of the 

17 taxable year, 

18 ‘‘(B) the usage of which is limited to a sin19 gle merchant, or 

20 ‘‘(C) the type of which is listed as an ex21 empt account in Annex II of the Foreign Ac22 count Tax Compliance Act Intergovernmental 

23 Agreement in effect between the United States 

24 and the country in which such account is 

25 held.’’, 


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1 (2) by redesignating subsections (f), (g), and 

2 (h) as subsections (g), (h), and (i), respectively, and 

3 (3) by inserting after subsection (e) the fol4 lowing new subsection: 

5 ‘‘(f) INFLATION ADJUSTMENT.— 

6 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In the case of any taxable 

7 year after 2024, the $50,000 amounts in subsection 

8 (a) and subsection (e) shall be increased by an 

9 amount equal to— 

10 ‘‘(A) such dollar amount, multiplied by 

11 ‘‘(B) the cost-of-living adjustment deter12 mined under section 1(f)(3) for the calendar 

13 year in which the taxable year begins, deter14 mined by substituting ‘calendar year 2023’ for 

15 ‘calendar year 2016’ in subparagraph (A)(ii) 

16 thereof. 

17 ‘‘(2) ROUNDING.—If any dollar amount in18 creased under paragraph (1) is not a multiple of 

19 $100, such dollar amount shall be rounded to the 

20 nearest multiple of $100.’’. 

21 (c) FURNISHMENT OF INFORMATION BY FOREIGN

22 FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS TO OWNERS OF SPECIFIED

23 FOREIGN FINANCIAL ASSETS.—Section 1471(c) of such 

24 Code is amended by adding at the end the following new 

25 paragraph: 


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1 ‘‘(4) REQUIREMENT TO PROVIDE INFORMATION

2 TO ACCOUNT HOLDERS.—If a foreign financial insti3 tution submits a report under this section, such in4 stitution shall provide account holders with a copy of 

5 such report within 15 days of such submission.’’. 

6 (d) DISCLOSURE OF SPECIFIED FOREIGN FINANCIAL

7 ASSETS TO THE FINANCIAL CRIMES ENFORCEMENT NET8 WORK.—Section 6103(l) of such Code is amended by add9 ing at the end the following new paragraph: 

10 ‘‘(23) DISCLOSURE OF SPECIFIED FOREIGN FI11 NANCIAL ASSETS TO THE FINANCIAL CRIMES EN12 FORCEMENT NETWORK.—The Secretary may, upon 

13 written request, furnish to the proper officers and 

14 employees of the Financial Crimes Enforcement 

15 Network such return information with respect to 

16 specified foreign financial assets as is attached to 

17 tax returns pursuant to section 6038D, but only to 

18 the extent necessary in investigating suspected 

19 money laundering or the financing of terrorism.’’. 

20 (e) EFFECTIVE DATE.— 

21 (1) The amendments made by subsection (a) 

22 shall apply to reports filed with respect to calendar 

23 years beginning after the date of the enactment of 

24 this Act. 


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1 (2) The amendments made by subsections (b), 

2 (c), and (d) shall apply to returns filed with respect 

3 to taxable years beginning after the date of the en4 actment of this Act. 

Æ 


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