So Far and Yet So Near contains forty-seven tales by Americans who have made their lives abroad for varying periods of time. The stories fully exemplify the Mark Twain quote on the cover: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." In reading these life experiences, you will laugh and cry and reflect. The stories provide refreshing and sometimes profoundly different perspectives on America, reaffirming the strength and diversity of our national character. Order online from ACA. It is also available from www.amazon.com USA or from www.amazon.co.UK

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Its advantage over previous systems is that it leads one step-by-step through the registration process, reducing a task complicated by different rules for each state to an exercise taking only a few minutes. The full rules for voting from abroad are available in the 2006-07 Voting Assistance Guide of the Federal Voting Assistance Program (fvap.gov).

Founded in early 2005, non-profit, non-partisan OVF seeks to enable as many overseas Americans as possible participate in the voting process. Americans abroad can vote in federal elections, no matter how long they have lived outside the country.

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ITINs

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All were welcome at ACA's annual fundraising auction held at the Ramada Park Hotel, Geneva; on 24 March. Cocktail hour (cash bar) began at 19:00, followed by the auction at 20:00. Free admission, free hors d'oeuvres, free entertainment all leave attendees cash reserves to purchase the wide (and sometimes wild!) variety of items and services. Credit cards accepted.

Please notify the ACA office in advance () to ensure enough eats and seats. If you cannot attend, you can help by providing items to be auctioned: stays at hotels or residences, meals at outstanding restaurants and travel/entertainment worldwide are particularly appreciated by the very international mix of bidders.

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Visas.

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Internal Revenue Service officials announced recently that they have updated their estimates of the Tax Year 2001 tax gap based on the National Research Program (NRP, a three-year study of 46,000 randomly selected tax year 2001 returns of individuals).

The updated estimate of the overall gross tax gap for Tax Year 2001 the difference between what taxpayers should have paid and what they actually paid on a timely basis comes to $345 billion. This figure falls at the high end of the range of $312 billion to $353 billion per year, an estimate released last March.

IRS enforcement activities, coupled with other late payments, recover about $55 billion of the tax gap, leaving a net tax gap of $290 billion for Tax Year 2001. See the analysis at: irs.gov

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ACA's book of tales by Americans living abroad, So Far and Yet So Near, is available now. In the coming days, details of how to order this fascinating collection of experiences and reflections will be sent out to the News Update mailing list. Start preparing the list of people to whom you want to offer this affirmative book about the mind-stretching adventure of living beyond the borders.

To order the book from ACA, click here.

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Get a feel for other cultures through their literatures in translation available on Words Without Borders "the online magazine for international literature" (wordswithoutborders.org) hosted by Bard College. Samples of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama which can be chosen by country or by theme (villages, mountains, deserts, etc.). The service is free including a monthly newsletter but memberships are available and donations welcomed. (A tip of the hat to The Foreign Service Journal itself highly interesting reading for this reference. See afsa.org).

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This News Update is, like ACA itself, of, by, and for Americans abroad. ACA is staffed through the efforts of volunteers, with its primary income source being membership fees and donations from private American citizens around the world.

WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE HANDS-ON TO ACA WORK:

1. NEWS UPDATE EDITORS. ACA is seeking to supplement its News Update staff. Work involves actually writing the News Update 2 - 3 times a year, under supervision of a Senior Editor, and monitoring raw material considered for the newsletter on a regular basis. Calls for e-mail access and an ability to write/edit succinctly and against a deadline. ACA takes pride in the global spread of its editors.
2. BOOK REVIEWS/REVIEWERS. ACA is interested in discovering books of particular interest to Americans abroad. It also seeks individuals willing to review such books. Reviewers get to keep the book, and to see their contribution in print. Click here for a list of books or contact the ACA office.

WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE TO ACA'S FINANCIAL SUCCESS:

1. ORDER YOUR PUBLICATIONS THROUGH THE ACA WEBSITE and we get paid for your business - at no cost to you. Go to the Book Review section and click on any link to amazon-com (USA) or amazon-UK. Any purchases you make when you have entered through the ACA portal, whether of items reviewed on the website or not, will generate a small revenue for ACA; Please make this extra click-to-give gesture to help us continue to help you. You can also order our new ACA book So far and Yet So Near directly from www.amazon.com USA or from www.amazon.co.UK and add your other orders.
2. JOIN US FOR OUR ANNUAL AUCTION. The FUNdraiser evening produces the single largest annual contribution to ACA's working budget. And the highest bids are for items ingenious and/or exotic. It's a good bet that someone in the attending crowd of internationals will be intrigued by even the most distant and/or unusual of objects or services.
3. IS YOUR MEMBERSHIP CURRENT? Renew by secure online payment or contact the ACA office . Membership is only $40 a year ($30 for seniors). Of course, an outright contribution via check or charge card is the most obvious way to support the work of ACA and its worldwide volunteers working to help YOU. Secure payment using PayPal^®, or send a check to: ACA, 5 rue Liotard, CH-1202 Geneva, Switzerland.

Disclaimer: While ACA makes every effort to be accurate in the information it transmits, such information is not to be considered a substitute for specific and qualified professional advice.

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