“It gives crypto owners clear guidelines and treats digital assets like other financial assets,” Yakym said.
Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said in an opening statement delivered Wednesday before the vote that the bill would modernize the taxation of digital assets and provide certainty for a growing digital asset economy.
“This is a historic moment for this Committee: after more than a year of working together, Republican and Democrat Members have come together to establish the first-ever tax framework for digital assets,” Smith said.
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Smith said the bill brings “clarity, parity and workability to digital asset taxation” and helps “keep the United States the crypto capital of the world.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the crypto bill would resolve several tax issues by creating tax exemptions for fees paid along with the disposition of digital assets, establish rules to make it easier for people to use cryptocurrency and stablecoins for consumer transactions, establish that mining and staking rewards are treated as ordinary income rather than capital gains, and limit taxpayers’ ability to record losses on digital asset sales if they quickly buy similar assets.
The Ways and Means Committee advanced the bill on a 38 to 5 vote, with five Democrats opposed, according to the report.
Next steps are unclear, but the bill could be considered after the election, per the report.
Politico reported Wednesday that crypto tax bill “faces a murky future.”
While the bill could be advanced after the election, another crypto bill, the Clarity Act, collapsed in the Senate Tuesday (Sept. 15), and the House crypto tax bill could be shelved if Democrats retake the House in the upcoming elections, the report said.
Crypto Council for Innovation Chief Strategy Officer and Head of U.S. Policy Alison Mangiero said in a statement released Wednesday that the Ways and Means Committee’s vote to advance the bill marks “the first time a digital asset framework has passed out of Committee” and that CCI “looks forward to working with Members of Congress and Committee staff to further strengthen the legislation.”