Exoneree Tax Relief Act Project

What if the government made you eligible for a tax refund, but gave you no notice or help applying before the deadline?

The Backstory: Most exonerees never got any compensation for their wrongful imprisonment. But for those who did, it was unclear in many cases whether the money was taxable. As a result, some exonerees paid taxes on the money they received; others were pursued by the IRS or state authorities for not doing so.

The Opportunity: In 2015, Congress clarified the law: from then on, any money received by an exoneree in connection with wrongful incarceration would not be taxable. But what about the exonerees who had paid taxes on such money in prior years and decades? They were given a one-time chance to claim a refund of those taxes - with interest - but only if they filed within the next year.

The Problem: The exonerees eligible for this limited-time refund had no idea that the law had changed and that the deadline was quickly approaching, nor any help with preparing their claims.

What We Did: We knew that sending emails or letters about a tax refund was not going to get the job done. To make sure no exoneree was left behind, we acted quickly to:

• Figure out which exonerees had received compensation - going back decades;

• Call each and every one of them to determine who was eligible for the tax refund; and

• Coordinate the free help from tax preparers and lawyers to file their claims by the deadline and track each claim to completion.

Our work led Congress to re-open the filing deadline for exonerees in 2018. Once again we got to work, this time focusing on a population largely unseen: military service members exonerated from wrongful imprisonment. We screened more than 3,200 military cases and found 70+ military service members eligible for refunds on taxes they had paid on their compensation money.

This project was covered by Huff Post, The Takeaway, Vice News and The Marshall Project.