The Biden administration is working behind the scenes to secure the release of Americans held in Iran, NBC News reported last month. The White House also insists it is “working every day” to free Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in Russia on trumped-up charges in March.
Let’s hope that American citizens who have become prisoners of authoritarian regimes acting outside the norms of international diplomacy will eventually be released to the United States, where they will again enjoy the sweet taste of freedom. And it’s well past time that Congress took steps to ensure that those who are wrongly imprisoned abroad aren’t subjected to a host of additional wrongs when they return to American soil.
There are few things that Republicans and Democrats can agree on these days, but the Stop Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act should be one of them. The bipartisan legislation, introduced in May by Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, and Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, would postpone tax deadlines for Americans who have been unlawfully held in a foreign nation.
It would also reimburse them for late fees assessed while they were detained.
Consider the case of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, who was held by Iran for 544 days before his release in 2016. When he got back to the states, “his welcome home came with bills of $20,000 for unpaid taxes, late payment penalties and interest,” The Wall Street Journal reported this week.
Rezaian told the Journal that “there was no pause button for wrongful detention. I was a hostage. Why do I have to pay taxes on that?”
Even those who plan ahead — leaving a family member with power of attorney, for instance — face major hurdles if their detention in a foreign jail drags into months or even years.
“You can start to imagine how challenging, how problematic that is for any family member stepping into the role,” Liz Cathcart of the nonprofit Hostage US, which works with families, told the Journal.
Some hostages are also the victims of fraud, as scammers tap their accounts hoping that they won’t be discovered in the short term.
Currently, the State Department will provide an official letter to families, stating that their loved one has been improperly detained. That can be a help, but it didn’t stop the IRS from going after Rezaian. The proposed legislation goes a step further to help ensure that Americans who have been victimized by rogue governments abroad don’t get abused again once they come home.
The proposal should be sent to President Joe Biden tomorrow.
