A bipartisan group of senators announced an agreement on an amendment to fix digital asset reporting requirements in the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which advanced the Senate Tuesday.
The amendment is intended to address a “tax gap” related to the underreporting of cryptocurrency transactions.
“There’s broad agreement that digital asset exchanges behaving as brokers should be required to report transactions just like other kinds of brokers already do. There is also concern that tax evasion and non-compliance are becoming significant issues surrounding cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Some have expressed confusion concerning the underlying text of the infrastructure bill, suggesting it would result in the application of reporting requirements far too broadly and ensnare individuals, developers, and other elements of this ecosystem that could not comply with a reporting mandate,” the bipartisan group of senators said about the agreement on an amendment.
The group includes U.S. Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA), Mark Warner (D-VA), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), and Rob Portman (R-OH).
“We’ve worked with the Treasury Department to clarify the underlying text and ensure that those who are not acting as brokers will not be subject to the bill’s reporting requirements,” they said. “While we each would have drafted this solution differently, we all agree it’s important to ensure that these obligations are properly crafted to apply only to entities that are regularly effectuating transactions of digital assets in exchange for consideration. To best memorialize this common understanding, we propose to incorporate this important amendment into the infrastructure bill and urge our colleagues to join us in enacting this bipartisan clarification.”