IRS stops charging fees to Americans held captive abroad.
H.R. 9496 — End Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act · Filed by Claudia Tenney (R-NY) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 29, 2026 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill stops the IRS from charging fees to Americans held captive or locked up abroad. It covers the time they were held. The bill also gives back or cancels any fees already paid by captives or their spouses. This covers cases from January 1, 2021 onward.
Who it affects
American captives and people locked up abroad get help from this bill. Their spouses also get help. The Treasury must process refunds for past fees.
One thing to notice
The bill requires the Secretary of State and Attorney General to share lists with the Treasury each year. The Treasury may need to refund fees paid over several years back to January 1, 2021.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Democrats.
- Jun 29, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 29, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means and Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means”
- Jul 1, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Jul 1, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute by the Yeas and Nays: 40 - 0”
- Sep 15, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote”
- Sep 15, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Smith (MO) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 2 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $80,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 6 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 41% of bills with any report.
Claudia Tenney, who sponsored the bill, received $1,179,908 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- American Bankers Association — $50,000 in 1 report
- Clearview Ai — $30,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- captive — A person held by force or threat, usually to get something in return.
- locked up — Held in prison or captivity without legal right or fair reason.
- fees — Money the government charges when someone breaks a rule or pays taxes late.
- Secretary of State — The government official in charge of relations with other countries.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jul 4, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,342 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-18.
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