Posted on 10/01/2024 4:23:54 PM PDT by Twotone
Many Americans who return home after being illegally detained overseas arrive to find they've been billed thousands of dollars by the IRS—including late fees for unpaid taxes.
That's the bizarre situation in which hostages Evan Gerskovich, Paul Whelan, and Vladimir Kara-Murza found themselves after they were released from detention in Russia last month. All three men say they faced a battery of surprise financial issues after returning home, including tax charges and hits to the credit stemming from bills they were unable to pay while behind bars.
"I got one of those bills from the IRS saying, you owe this much on this year, you owe this much on this year because of failure to pay on time—here's the interest that's accrued," Washington Post reporter and former hostage Jason Rezaian told NPR. He faced more than $6,000 in fees for unpaid taxes after his release, following 544 days of detention in Iran. "This is an oversight that nobody really thought about."
And they're not alone. Right now, between 40 and 60 American nationals are being illegally detained by other nations, according to NPR. Many of these Americans will return home to face startling financial penalties stemming from their unjust imprisonment.
The IRS, for its own part, claims that it doesn't have the legal authority to remove tax fees for returning hostages. However, that could change. Earlier this year, Sen. Chris Coons (D–Del.) introduced the Stop Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, an aptly named bill that would require the IRS to exempt hostages from tax liability during the period of their detainment. The bill would also force the IRS to allow hostages and their spouses to apply to have their tax-related fines removed.
If Coons' bill passes, it would solve a small but frustrating problem in our robotic tax system. It's a no-brainer that someone illegally detained abroad can't pay their Netflix subscription on time—much less their taxes. In addition to dealing with the horrors of being held hostage in a foreign country and dealing with the rocky transition back to normal life, former detainees shouldn't also get slapped with thousands of dollars of fines for taxes they never could have paid in the first place.
Income tax on what income? They still get paid while being held hostage? Where does the paycheck go? Don’t they have withholding to cover the tax?
They would have been better off to settle in another country and let an attorney negotiate this before they returned...
Color me skeptical. The name of the bill is always a diversion.
It probably exempts the Bidens from paying taxes for life.
All part of that "early" retirement plan for Joe. And since they couldn't get away with exempting Hunter from crimes for life in that plea agreement, they decided to go the statutory route.
Oh and don't forget, there will also be a $10 billion authorization for certain democrat-donating companies to study the overseas prison situation.
3-letter dirty word running amok. Trump ought to say something about this.
Bureau, Commission, Service, Agency, Department, others (?)
No surprise, the IRS works for, and IS GloboHomoPedoNazi, like Democrats, NeoCons, Deep Swamp, State, FBI, Justice, CIA, et all.
It depends. There’s plenty of self-generating incomes that can happen without you doing much of anything if you have the capital to get in on it at the front end.
That is one of the reasons expats settle for a few years in The US Virgin Islands or Guam. You fill out US tax forms but all the money stays on the islands and the locals are too lazy to look at the funds you transferred in. You can create a paper trail of paid taxes until the statute of limitations expires on the time you were overseas and then you move your cash from a US bank to a branch on the mainland
Legitimate strategy. I’d still check it out with an attorney to make sure I am OK.
Previous income I would guess. Before they were held.
Who is threatening to punish them if they did remove the tax fees?
An IRS that turns a blind eye to the 20-to-30 billion dollars each year of untaxed dollars being sent to mexico by the migrant-invader vermin inside the U.S.
A situation often, in the past, bragged about by the mexican presidents and governors...
This is nonsense many ways. The IRS absolutely does have the discretion to waive fines and penalties and to negotiate back taxes. There is no need for a new law, either. Especially one so narrowly focused. President can issue an EO telling the IRS to waive penalties on people detained overseas. He could also just pardon these specific individuals but that won’t be as good as an EO for future needs.
That strategy might work for the money, since the IRS cannot collect after I think it’s 6 or 7 years. But they do notify the state department of the bill and if it’s high enough they will cancel your passport.
Words escape me...............
Don't know. Maybe work they did prior?
They still get paid while being held hostage?
Possibly. Depends on who they work for.
Where does the paycheck go?
Into direct deposit.
Don’t they have withholding to cover the tax?
Sometimes. If you are doing contract work, sometimes not.
IRSholes.
The IRS has made plans on being be back to collecting taxes within 30 days of a nuclear war. You being a hostage isn’t going to slow them down one bit.
btt
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