Biden administration wants to tax crypto investors to fund $550B infrastructure project

US govt to raise $28 billion from taxing cryptocurrency transactions for funding bipartisan infrastructure project
Crypto businesses must report transactions north of $10,000
Arresting tax frauds and closely scrutinizing digital asset behavior primary objectives

JAIPUR (Coinchapter.com) – Cryptocurrency investors in the United States will have to shell out more tax dollars according to the government’s latest plan. Incumbent President Joseph Biden and his administrative workforce see this as a viable solution to fund a portion of the $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure deal.

As per a Bloomberg report, the new rules would net the government an additional $28 billion through digital asset taxes. Plus, crypto businesses would need to report all digital currency transactions, especially those worth more than $10,000.

Closely Watching Crypto Transfers

The new crypto tax rules may appear as a means to augment the building of transportation and power systems financially. But the more significant objective is to impose a tight grip on the flow of funds through cryptocurrency transactions.

Senator Rob Portman of the Republican party, who played an instrumental role in the negotiations, said:

Everybody’s been talking about the appropriate way to provide more reporting in particular and that leads to better compliance.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US’s official taxman, cited concerns in the past about folks committing tax frauds by hiding “income from the federal government.” So the body also mandated individuals dealing in crypto assets to declare transactions on Form 1040 last year.

Criticism

The Biden administration’s decision to squeeze crypto investors raised serious eyebrows and has drawn immense flak from the cryptocurrency community.

Unfortunately, in the drafts we’ve seen, the category of persons who would be obligated to report is so broad that it potentially covers persons who only provide software or hardware to customers and who have no visibility whatsoever into users’ transactions.
said Jerry Brito, executive director of Coincenter

Mainly because the proposals were last-minute additions to the crucial bill and could put crypto market participants in the country in a severe soup, Mr. Brito noted:

We’ve been engaged with the relevant staff who worked on this over the past few months, but the problem is that this language was a last minute addition to a must-pass bill.

We’re dealing with a serious situation in DC. As Jerry explains, the infrastructure bill has a provision that could be very bad for crypto, forcing non-custodial actors (maybe including miners) to comply with IRS tax reporting obligations. More on this when the bill is public.
said law professional Jake Chervinsky, while throwing more light on Mr. Brito’s points