Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Calif) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass) wrote in a letter on Monday that the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should immediately reveal anticipated crypto tax guidelines so that the business can be brought into full compliance.According to Sherman, a senior member of the House Committee on Financial Services, “the cryptocurrency industry has been a major source of tax evasion and a significant part of the nation’s tax gap for many years.”
The letter pointed out that the government has not to publish the new regulations, even though the White House may have finished its study of the contentious tax reporting requirements for cryptocurrency brokers in the 2021 infrastructure bill in February. A broad definition of “broker” that may extend the reporting obligation to cryptocurrency wallet providers and miners, who would not be able to comply with the rule, was the sticking point.
At CoinDesk’s Consensus event in April, IRS representative Julie Foerster said she could not say when the organization planned to update and clarify the guidance but that it was looking into alternative methods of getting the word out to the business community so that taxpayers could voluntarily comply with the reporting requirement.The letter from the MPs stated that the cryptocurrency business had the entire year 2022 to be ready “and now it apparently gets the year 2023 off as well.”