Gates County, North CarolinaThe 40 Americans Wrongfully Detained Around The World Face An Additional Challenge At Home: The IRS
Excerpt:
When Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian was released from Iran after 544 days of imprisonment, he said his welcome home came with bills of $20,000 for unpaid taxes, late payment penalties and interest.
Rezaian had given his brother power of attorney to manage his affairs while he was abroad—but that power didn’t allow his brother to submit tax returns on his behalf. “There was no pause button for wrongful detention,” Rezaian said. “I was a hostage…Why do I have to pay taxes on that?”
Families of wrongfully detained U.S. citizens struggle to maintain detainees’ financial lives in their absence, even as they also wage daily battles to secure their loved one’s freedom. Their bureaucratic battles have spurred government officials, advocacy groups and lawmakers to search for ways to help them cut through the red tape.
A growing number of Americans are being detained by hostile governments on charges that the U.S. considers bogus. About 40 U.S. citizens are currently deemed by the federal government to be wrongfully detained, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained on a reporting trip in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg almost 100 days ago and faces a charge of espionage that he, the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny.
Such detentions add a layer of geopolitical complexity over efforts to secure a detainee’s freedom, but in every case, there is also a blizzard of administrative tasks for a detainee’s parents or siblings or adult children to tackle at home—something many of them do as an act of faith, that the person will eventually return. ...
Rezaian—who was released in a prisoner swap in 2016—said the Internal Revenue Service was “very apologetic” over his tax bill and over time agreed to reduce the amount he owed to around $6,000, but said it could go no further. While the agency has some discretion to waive penalties, it doesn’t have the legal authority to forgive taxes or interest on the basis that the filer has been wrongfully detained.
The IRS doesn’t comment on individual tax matters, but an IRS official said the agency, when possible, “will work with the family of any individual who is being held hostage or unlawfully detained to resolve any tax issues that may arise from these heart-wrenching and unconscionable situations.”
Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, has introduced a bill with South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds that postpones tax deadlines for wrongfully detained Americans and reimburses paid late fees from people who have been unlawfully held abroad.
It is because Rezaian told him about the problem, Coons said. “When I looked at him, I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
An entire institutional machine has built up around the U.S. response to trumped-up arrests by hostile foreign governments, spearheaded by the office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, a unit of the State Department.
Gates County, North Carolina