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Supporters of the crypto industry in the U.S. Senate filed an amendment to the bipartisan infrastructure bill to make clear that miners and providers of crypto services would not be required to follow new tax-reporting rules on crypto brokers.
The amendment would “clarify that ‘brokers’ mean only those persons who conduct transactions on exchanges where consumers buy, sell and trade digital assets,” according to a press release.
Read more: Crypto allies rally against ‘ignorant’ new tax rules in bipartisan infrastructure deal
That means that the IRS will not be able to require that miners, stakers and companies that sell hardware or software for storing digital assets report the activities of their customers or crypto users whose transactions they verify.
It also exempts developers who create digital assets from monitoring their use if the users are not their customers.
The amendment was introduced by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Republican Sens. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
See also: What new crypto tax rules would mean for average investors and miners
In a statement, Wyden said that “investors failing to pay tax they owe through cryptocurrency is a real problem,” but that the law as previously written was too broad and would have applied to actors who would not have been able to fulfill its mandates.
“Digital assets are here to stay,” Lummis said in the press released. “While much more work needs to be done, this amendment is a responsible step toward fully incorporating digital assets into the U.S. financial sector.”
The changes will lead to the bill raising $5.2 billion less than the $28 billion envisaged by the initial legislation, according to a Politico report citing the Joint Committee on Taxation.
The report also said that the White House is pushing back against the proposed changes, citing an unnamed administration official who argued that the industry is using “scare tactics” to dilute the impact of the proposed law.
It is expected that the amendment will be considered in the coming days, with a vote on the entire package likely occurring early next week, according to analysts at Beacon Policy Advisors.
“The Democratic majority today will consider even more amendments, and then hopefully we can bring this bill to a close very shortly,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a floor speech Thursday.
Crypto assets were trading mixed Thursday morning, with bitcoin
BTCUSD,
down about 1.9% and ether
ETHUSD,
rising roughly 3%.
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