Evan Gershkovich and other American hostages face thousands in IRS penalties when they return home

US citizens who are unjustly held captive by other nations — like Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich — are hit with big bills from the IRS for unpaid taxes when they return home.

Gershkovich and another American hostage, Paul Whelan — who were freed in August — found themselves with a mountain of surprise IRS debt and credit hits for the unpaid tax and resulting fees they accrued while being held in Russian prisons, Reason reported.

It’s an issue that all freed hostages deal with and one that the IRS says it can only help so much — due to federal laws preventing the agency from forgiving all the debt.

Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who was held captive in Iran for 544 days, said he was stuck paying a $6,000+ bill to the IRS for unpaid taxes during his wrongful detainment.

“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,” Rezaian, who was freed in 2016, told NPR.

His bill eventually ballooned to $22,000 — with the IRS forgiving the majority. But the reporter was still forced to pay the original $6,000 because the agency’s power to forgive and eliminate fees is limited by federal law, Rezaian said he was told.

“I don’t look at this as the IRS out for blood and treasure. It’s not like that,” he told the news outlet. “This is an oversight that nobody really thought about.”

Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, is hoping to fix that oversight after learning of the issue from Rezaian.

He introduced the “Stop Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act” earlier this year to do exactly what the name of the bill states.

“This bill postpones certain tax filing deadlines for U.S. nationals and their spouses who are unlawfully or wrongfully detained abroad or held hostage abroad,” a summary of the legislation simply states. “It also allows for a refund and abatement of penalties and fines paid by detained individuals.”

The bill has bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House and has already passed in the Senate. But before it can pass the House, Speaker Mike Johnson needs to bring it up for a vote.

Coons penned an op-ed about the bill in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday to draw up awareness and support.

He also mentions additional legislation he’s since introduced to support freed hostages returning home to credit penalties and decreased Social Security benefits

“Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained shouldn’t be treated like tax cheats,” Coons wrote.