3 US Senators are proposing amendments the infrastructure bill that would put some of the cryptocurrency market out of its reach
Caroline Brehman-Pool/Getty Images
- A group of US senators is proposing a legislative amendment to the US infrastructure bill to exclude parts of the crypto industry from a tax reporting rule.
- Sens. Ron Wyden, Patrick J. Toomey, and Cynthia Lummis filed the amendment.
- According to Politico, the Biden administration has not warmed to the proposal.
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A group of US senators is proposing a legislative amendment to the infrastructure bill that would exclude certain parts of the cryptocurrency industry from a tax reporting rule.
On Wednesday, Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming filed an amendment that will exclude crypto miners and software developers from the tax reporting requirements in the bill.
The current bill proposes that all crypto "brokers" and investors report their transactions to the IRS, a practice that is estimated to raise over $28 billion to fund infrastructure projects over the next decade.
But senators say the current bill's definition of a broker is too broad, and argue reporting obligations should apply only to individuals conducting transactions on exchanges where digital assets are bought, sold, and traded.
"The senators' amendment would clarify that 'brokers' mean only those persons who conduct transactions on exchanges where consumers buy, sell and trade digital assets, and does not require information reporting from persons who engage in mining or staking, selling hardware or software that an individual may use to control a private key, or developing digital assets or their corresponding protocols for use by other persons if such other persons are not customers," a statement from Cynthia Lummis' office reads.
Cryptocurrency firms including Coinbase, Coin Center, and The Blockchain Association released a joint statement in support of the amendment on Wednesday. The firms said that the earlier version of the bill would place "unworkable requirements" on the budding industry.
"Without this amendment, the US will spend hundreds of millions collecting information on transactions that could never generate actual tax revenue," Marco Santori, Kraken chief legal officer told Insider.
According to Politico, the Biden administration has not warmed up to the amendment. An anonymous senior administration official told Politico the administration believes the industry is using scare tactics to try to water down the requirements. The administration also believes that the senators' proposed changes could put a large dent in the $28 billion the original requirement is estimated to raise.