Latest Congressional swing at crypto tax reform would direct IRS to review de minimis exemptions

A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a revised crypto tax bill Wednesday that aims to update the tax code to better address crypto use cases and would, if signed into law, direct the IRS to analyze the effect de minimis exemptions might have.

Congressmen Steven Horsford (D-N.V.), Max Miller (R-Ohio), Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) and Mike Carey (R-Ohio) reintroduced the Digital Asset Protection, Accountability, Regulation, Innovation, Taxation and Yields Act, otherwise known as the Parity Act, that Horsford and Miller had previously pushed a few times. The new language comes a week after lawmakers reportedly met to discuss crypto tax reform.

The new version of the bill calls for "regulated payment stablecoins" to incur no gain or loss unless the cost basis is less than 99% of the redemption value of the stablecoin, and it also creates a safe harbor for trading through brokers or in taxpayer accounts, defines how so-called "wash sale" rules might apply to digital assets and addresses how digital assets earned by acting as a validator.

The bill also directs the IRS to review what sort of tax burden crypto holders face when it comes to "small digital asset transactions" and how many transactions worth less than $200 are captured under existing law. This review should include the IRS' needs if there was a de minimis exemption — meaning a carveout for activity that the law should consider too small to be concerned with — for crypto transactions, as well as whether and how such an exemption might be abused.

The crypto industry has long argued that freeing taxpayers of the burden of having to file and report taxes on small transactions would make it easier to use crypto as a payments tool for small items like a cup of coffee.

The bill is meant to just be a first step toward broader crypto tax reform, Horsford said at CoinDesk's Consensus Miami conference earlier this month.

"I actually think tax is the foundation. Why? Because it's tax policy that will determine number one, how these digital assets can be used in our finance system. And at a time when our federal tax code is outdated, it does not take into account the modernization of digital assets," he said.

"For example, none of the current regulatory policy framework tells a consumer, an institution, or a builder what happens to their taxes when they sell a digital asset, earned staking reward, lend crypto on the U.S. platform or make a charitable contribution in bitcoin," the lawmaker said "Those are tax questions. And they remain entirely unresolved."