Infrastructure Act ’s Cryptocurrency Reporting on Hold, Says IRS

Nicholas AnthonyIn the final days of 2022, theInternal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act ’s infamous cryptocurrency reporting requirements were being put on hold. While this sudden change is far more welcome than when Congresswrote the law seemingly overnight in late 2021, the temporary pause shouldn ’t distract from the fact that the reporting requirements should be repealed entirely.A Quick Refresher on the Infrastructure ActAs the name suggests, theInfrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was primarily written with the supposed intention of rebuildingroads, bridges, railways, ports, and the like. Yet to do so, the sprawling 1,039-page bill needed pay ‐​for provisions to offset the spending. Therefore, in the Fall of 2021, Congress slipped in a provision with two amendments targeting the cryptocurrency market. TheJoint Committee on Taxation initially estimated that this change would drum up some $28 billion in tax revenue —a number later revised down to just$2 billion.The first amendment changed26 U.S. Code § 6045 (the “broker definition”) to label not just traditional exchanges (e.g., Coinbase, Robinhood, etc.) as brokers but also cryptocurrency miners and even software developers. In doing so, the amendment requires said brokers to report the name and address of each person, or “customer,” they interact with. However, an immediate problem with this requirement is that miners simply do not have access to t...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs