House Republicans introduce seven crypto tax bills ahead of Ways and Means hearing
In brief
- House Republicans circulated seven new crypto tax bills, the first congressional leadership effort on tax-focused crypto legislation.
- Bills include staking and mining exemptions, $10 de minimis exemption for network transaction fees, and two-year amnesty for past tax failures.
- Legislation excludes broader de minimis exemption for everyday Bitcoin and stablecoin purchases.
Exemptions for staking and mining
House Republican leadership circulated seven new crypto tax bills, each targeting a different pain point in the current crypto tax regime. One bill, the Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act, would exempt crypto generated through staking and mining from a holder's taxable income. Currently, crypto users who stake their coins must report the rewards they receive as income, even if those rewards are never sold or exchanged for dollars.
Another bill, the Less Tax Paperwork for Digital Asset Owners Act, would establish a $10 de minimis tax exemption for crypto network transaction fees, with a taxpayer able to exempt up to 5,000 such transactions a year. The need for such relief is acute. Crypto users are currently required to report every transaction on a blockchain network as a taxable event, even those totalling fewer than a few cents.
What the bills don't cover
Notably, the bills set to be discussed Tuesday do not include a larger de minimis exemption for everyday purchases completed with popular cryptocurrencies like stablecoins and Bitcoin. Last year, Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced a crypto tax bill that would have created a $300 de minimis threshold for transactions in any cryptocurrency, capped at $5,000—a broader relief than what these House bills propose.
Amnesty and residency provisions
The Digital Assets Voluntary Disclosure Program Act would give U.S. crypto holders a two-year amnesty period to self-report past failures to pay taxes on crypto holdings. Those who pay taxes or set up a payment plan under the program would be exempt from future criminal liability. Another bill would exempt U.S. citizens from being treated as U.S. residents on certain digital asset sales if at least 10% of income derived from the sale is paid to a foreign country as income tax.
The bills cover a wide range of issues, according to the Digital Chamber, a D.C. crypto trade group, which said the tax bills were crafted through months of industry engagement. The House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Tuesday will be the first formal congressional venue to debate these proposals.
