A Treasury Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, reportedly told Bloomberg that the Treasury Department intends to clarify the meaning of “broker” in the newly passed infrastructure bill.
The US Treasury Department is apparently working to clarify the definition of brokers in the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by the Senate last week, expressing cautious comfort that the new legislation will not have an adverse effect on blockchain innovation and growth.
Bloomberg reported that the Treasury Department is creating advice on the categories of cryptocurrency businesses that would be required to comply with new IRS reporting requirements. The paper noted that the term “broker” might be reduced to exclude protocol developers and wallet providers currently operating in the cryptocurrency business.
According to Bloomberg, developers, miners, and wallet providers would be exempt from the new reporting rules as long as they are not also brokers. “The Treasury’s guidelines will not offer blanket exclusions based on how businesses identify themselves, but will instead focus on whether a business’s activities qualify it as a broker under the tax code,” wrote Christopher Condon and Laura Davidson. At the time of writing, the Treasury Department has not publicly confirmed the veracity of these intentions.
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, President Biden’s infrastructure bill cleared the US Senate last week without the much-needed clarity on bitcoin enterprises. Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, stated that the bill “imposes a badly flawed, and in some cases unworkable, cryptocurrency tax reporting mandate that threatens future technological innovation.”
Toomey, along with bipartisan colleagues Ron Wyden and Cynthia Lummis, had offered an amendment exempting protocol creators from the necessity to file tax returns. Perhaps for political reasons, the amendment was ultimately removed from the Senate’s 2,700-page infrastructure measure last week.
Before it can become law, the bill must pass the House of Representatives. Although no date has been set for the House vote, at least nine Democrats have warned Speaker Nancy Pelosi that they will abstain from voting on a budget resolution unless the infrastructure package is passed.
Also Read: Walmart Is On The Search For A Crypto Product Lead
Wallets