The U.S. Treasury Department has indicated that it plans to spare crypto miners and stakers from rules that would require digital asset brokers to share information about their clients’ transactions with the IRS.
The decision is a major victory for the cryptocurrency sector after U.S. President Joe Biden signed more than $1 trillion in infrastructure legislation last year. The law requires brokers or platforms that trade cryptocurrencies to report all customer transactions worth more than $10,000 to the IRS.
Jonathan Davidson, Assistant Treasury Secretary for Legal Affairs, commented that those who do not have access to information useful to the IRS are not required to report it. This means that those who use bitcoin mining or -staking as a means of authentication, as well as software and hardware providers, are not subject to the above requirements.
A statement from the U.S. Treasury Department could ease concerns from executives at crypto companies such as Blockchain Inc. and Coinbase Global Inc. as well as organizations such as the Blockchain Association and the Coin Center.
In addition, the Ministry of Finance plans to draft further legislation to define brokers.