President Joe Biden signed the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, which contains a controversial cryptocurrency tax reporting requirement, into law on Monday.
- The crypto industry was concerned about a tax reporting requirement within the bill that sought to expand the definition of a broker for Internal Revenue Service purposes. The bill would require all brokers to report transactions under the current tax code.
- Industry proponents worried the definition would be too broad, capturing entities such as miners and other parties that don’t actually facilitate transactions.
- Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) tried to narrow the scope of the bill’s crypto broker clause at the last minute on Monday, but ultimately failed.
- Another provision opposed by the crypto industry essentially requires recipients of transactions over $1,000 to verify the sender’s personal information and record his or her Social Security number, the nature of the transaction and other information, and report the transaction to the government within 15 days.
- Some lawyers have pointed out that when applied to cryptocurrencies and other digital assets like non-fungible tokens (NFT), it would be nearly impossible to comply with the law.
