I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1868 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to postpone tax deadlines 
and reimburse paid late fees for United States nationals who are unlaw-
fully or wrongfully detained or held hostage abroad, and for other pur-
poses. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 5, 2025 
Mr. HILL of Arkansas (for himself, Ms. TITUS, Ms. TENNEY, and Mr. BEYER) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to postpone 
tax deadlines and reimburse paid late fees for United 
States nationals who are unlawfully or wrongfully de-
tained or held hostage abroad, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Stop Tax Penalties 
on American Hostages Act of 2025’’. 
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‘‘(B) the amount of any interest, penalty, 
additional amount, or addition to the tax for 
periods after such date, and 
‘‘(C) the amount of any credit or refund. 
‘‘(2) APPLICATION TO SPOUSE.—The provisions 
of paragraph (1) shall apply to the spouse of any in-
dividual entitled to the benefits of such paragraph. 
‘‘(3) SPECIAL RULE FOR OVERPAYMENTS.—The 
rules of section 7508(b) shall apply for purposes of 
this section. 
‘‘(b) APPLICABLE INDIVIDUAL.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this sec-
tion, the term ‘applicable individual’ means any indi-
vidual who is— 
‘‘(A) a United States national unlawfully 
or wrongfully detained abroad, as determined 
under section 302 of the Robert Levinson Hos-
tage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Account-
ability Act (22 U.S.C. 1741), or 
‘‘(B) a United States national taken hos-
tage abroad, as determined pursuant to the 
findings of the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell 
(as described in section 304 of the Robert 
Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Tak-
ing Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 1741b)). 
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‘‘(2) INFORMATION PROVIDED TO TREASURY.— 
For purposes of identifying individuals described in 
paragraph (1), not later than January 1, 2026, and 
annually thereafter— 
‘‘(A) the Secretary of State shall provide 
the Secretary with a list of the individuals de-
scribed in paragraph (1)(A), as well as any 
other information necessary to identify such in-
dividuals, and 
‘‘(B) the Attorney General, acting through 
the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, shall provide 
the Secretary with a list of the individuals de-
scribed in paragraph (1)(B), as well as any 
other information necessary to identify such in-
dividuals. 
‘‘(c) MODIFICATION OF TREASURY DATABASES AND 
INFORMATION SYSTEMS.—The Secretary shall update, as 
necessary, any database or information system of the De-
partment of the Treasury in order to ensure that the pro-
visions of subsection (a) are applied with respect to each 
applicable individual. 
‘‘(d) REFUND AND ABATEMENT OF PENALTIES AND 
FINES IMPOSED PRIOR TO IDENTIFICATION AS APPLICA-
BLE INDIVIDUAL.—In the case of any applicable indi-
vidual— 
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‘‘(1) for whom any interest, penalty, additional 
amount, or addition to the tax in respect to any tax 
liability for any taxable year ending during the pe-
riod described in subsection (a)(1) was assessed or 
collected, and 
‘‘(2) who was, subsequent to such assessment 
or collection, determined to be an individual de-
scribed in subparagraph (A) or (B) of subsection 
(b)(1), 
the Secretary shall abate any such assessment and refund 
any amount collected to such applicable individual in the 
same manner as any refund of an overpayment of tax 
under section 6402.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 
for chapter 77 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is 
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 
7510 the following new item: 
‘‘Sec. 7511. Time for performing certain acts postponed for hostages and indi-
viduals wrongfully detained abroad.’’. 
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall apply to taxable years ending after the 
date of enactment of this Act. 
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SEC. 3. REFUND AND ABATEMENT OF PENALTIES AND 
FINES PAID BY ELIGIBLE INDIVIDUALS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 7511 of the Internal Rev-
enue Code of 1986, as added by section 2, is amended 
by adding at the end the following new subsection: 
‘‘(d) REFUND AND ABATEMENT OF PENALTIES AND 
FINES PAID BY ELIGIBLE INDIVIDUALS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.— 
‘‘(A) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 
January 1, 2026, the Secretary (in consultation 
with the Secretary of State and the Attorney 
General) shall establish a program to allow any 
eligible individual (or the spouse or any depend-
ent (as defined in section 152) of such indi-
vidual) to apply for a refund or an abatement 
of any amount described in paragraph (2) (in-
cluding interest) to the extent such amount was 
attributable to the applicable period. 
‘‘(B) IDENTIFICATION OF INDIVIDUALS.— 
Not later than January 1, 2026, the Secretary 
of State and the Attorney General, acting 
through the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell (as 
described in section 304 of the Robert Levinson 
Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Ac-
countability Act (22 U.S.C. 1741b)), shall— 
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‘‘(i) compile a list, based on such in-
formation as is available, of individuals 
who were applicable individuals during the 
applicable period, and 
‘‘(ii) provide the list described in 
clause (i) to the Secretary. 
‘‘(C) NOTICE.—For purposes of carrying 
out the program described in subparagraph (A), 
the Secretary (in consultation with the Sec-
retary of State and the Attorney General) shall, 
with respect to any individual identified under 
subparagraph (B), provide notice to such indi-
vidual— 
‘‘(i) in the case of an individual who 
has been released on or before the date of 
enactment of this subsection, not later 
than 90 days after the date of enactment 
of this subsection, or 
‘‘(ii) in the case of an individual who 
is released after the date of enactment of 
this subsection, not later than 90 days 
after the date on which such individual is 
released, 
that such individual may be eligible for a refund 
or an abatement of any amount described in 
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paragraph (2) pursuant to the program de-
scribed in subparagraph (A). 
‘‘(D) AUTHORIZATION.— 
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Subject to clause 
(ii), in the case of any refund described in 
subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall 
issue such refund to the eligible individual 
in the same manner as any refund of an 
overpayment of tax. 
‘‘(ii) EXTENSION OF LIMITATION ON 
TIME FOR REFUND.—With respect to any 
refund under subparagraph (A)— 
‘‘(I) the 3-year period of limita-
tion prescribed by section 6511(a) 
shall be extended until the end of the 
1-year period beginning on the date 
that the notice described in subpara-
graph (C) is provided to the eligible 
individual, and 
‘‘(II) any limitation under section 
6511(b)(2) shall not apply. 
‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE INDIVIDUAL.—For purposes of 
this subsection, the term ‘eligible individual’ means 
any applicable individual who, for any taxable year 
ending during the applicable period, paid or incurred 
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