House of Reps pass bipartisan infrastructure bill
Despite the public outcry by crypto advocates over the hotly contested $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Bill, the United States House of Reps has given a nod to the bipartisan bill.
The decision of the house could introduce new levels of reporting and taxation requirements on the cryptocurrency sector in the US. If assented by President Biden, crypto service providers operating in the region such as Coinbase and Binance US will be required to fill out 1099 forms disclosing the identities of their customers. In addition to their customers’ names and addresses, they will also have to report their income directly to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The Backstory
In August, a clause in the US Infrastructure bill unsettled several nerves after some Senators inserted a provision that seeks to add cryptocurrency businesses into the “broker” category. The implication was that crypto service providers, including miners, developers, and DeFi protocols, could be subject to huge tax burdens.
Several proponents kicked against the rather broad term “broker,” which could deal a great blow to the crypto industry. Although there were attempts by a few supposedly pro-crypto senators to amend the bill and make the provision more specific, they ultimately failed to remove the unclear language from the bill.
The bill was transferred to the House of Reps, who have also chosen to pass the original version. The House voted to pass the bill on Saturday.
Is this the end?
Despite the latest development, CoinCenter’s Jerry Brito is determined to see that the industry gets a fair hearing.
“Despite our best effort, the infrastructure bill has passed with the terrible crypto tax reporting provisions, “he said in a series of tweets on Saturday. “The fight is not over yet, however. We have several paths to continue to pursue a fix.”
He reminded his followers that the provisions of the bill would not take effect until 2024. This gives room for possible amendments to the law before it is rolled out.
He further revealed that his organization has been working with several congress members to introduce stand-alone crypto taxation bills.
