U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan bill to mobilize $1.2 trillion for infrastructure upgrades without amendments favorable to the crypto industry.
The document contains an expanded definition of the term ‘broker’. Depending on interpretation, miners and node operators in blockchains, wallet developers, liquidity providers in DeFi protocols and other non-custodial players may be required to report to the IRS about their users’ activity.
The bill’s requirements, in this form, are technically unworkable, for which the document has repeatedly criticized by crypto-industry representatives, including Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey.
Senators Ron Wyden, Cynthia Lummis and Pat Toomey proposed to exclude participants of the crypto industry from the bipartisan plan. Their colleague Rob Portman put forward a counterproposal, exempting from tax reporting only miners and sellers of hardware or software, leaving unclear the status of PoS validators.
On August 9, Democrats, Republicans and the Department of the Treasury reached a compromise; however the corresponding amendment did not receive unanimous support — opposed by 87-year-old Richard Shelby.
Concurrently with Biden’s signing of the infrastructure plan, Senators Ron Wyden and Cynthia Lummis again proposed limiting certain cryptocurrency tax reporting rules within it. They will take effect on January 1, 2024.
Senators Lummis and Wyden are introducing a bill to narrow some of the cryptocurrency tax reporting rules in the infrastructure bill being signed into law today. https://t.co/uswxB3eeCB pic.twitter.com/xRQJGbv2Rs
— Jerry Brito (@jerrybrito) November 15, 2021
“In the bill, we clearly stated that the new reporting requirements do not apply to those developing blockchain technology and wallets”, Wyden explained.
Bloomberg explained that it remains unclear when the document will be brought up for consideration and whether there is a chance to include it in other initiatives before the end of the year.
As CNBC reported, citing a Treasury official, the department does not intend to broadly interpret the definition of ‘broker’ for industry participants.
Earlier in the crypto community expressed concern about yet another amendment to the infrastructure plan, which would require recipients of digital assets over $10 000 to verify the sender’s personal information.
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