Summary
- The Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act has been approved by the House Ways and Means Committee.
- This legislation addresses transaction fees, stablecoins, mining, staking, and lending.
- To become law, the bill must be approved by both chambers of Congress and signed by the president.
On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee endorsed the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, moving the proposal to reform cryptocurrency taxation forward to the entire House for consideration.
The committee had previously announced a markup session on Monday, where lawmakers were set to review H.R. 10357, propose amendments, and vote on its advancement to the full House.
Myriad: Will Democrats sweep midterm elections? Click to make your prediction.Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) remarked, “This wasn’t built overnight,” acknowledging over a year of bipartisan collaboration.
He stated, “The legislation before us today is the product of that work, bringing clarity, parity, and workability to digital asset taxation and helping keep the United States the crypto capital of the world, instead of pushing that innovation, and the jobs that come with it, offshore.”
The proposed bill aims to eliminate the need for gain-or-loss calculations for network or transaction fees of $10 or less for crypto users. Currently, paying these fees with tokens can lead to tax implications since digital assets are regarded as property. This relief is set to take effect in 2028 and will apply only to qualifying fee payments, not minor crypto purchases.
Additionally, the legislation seeks to simplify tax calculations for dollar stablecoins that are traded close to their redemption value, categorize mining and staking rewards as ordinary income, and permit certain investment trusts to stake assets without jeopardizing their tax status. It drops a previous proposal that would have allowed taxpayers to defer recognizing some mining and staking rewards.
Moreover, the bill will extend wash-sale rules to digital assets, deferring loss deductions when investors acquire substantially identical assets within 30 days of a sale. Qualifying crypto loans will not be treated as sales, and eligible taxpayers will have the opportunity to amend past tax returns through a new disclosure program, as outlined by the Joint Committee on Taxation.
This tax proposal comes just a day after the Senate rejected the Clarity Act, which was aimed at crypto market regulation. The SEC and CFTC have committed to enforcing crypto regulations under their current authority.
Before it can become law, the tax bill still needs to be passed in identical form by both chambers and receive the president's signature.
“I look forward to building on that work as we move these policies forward,” Smith concluded.