Perianne Boring, the founder and president of the Digital Chamber of
Commerce, provided details about the proposed amendment Saturday
afternoon.
United States senators Mark Warner and Kyrsten Sinema, both Democrats
from Virginia and Arizona, respectively, have introduced a new
amendment to the infrastructure bill that would lessen the burden on
cryptocurrency tax reporting for miners and wallet providers.
As Perianne Boring reported
Saturday afternoon, the senators are endorsing an amendment that would
exclude cryptocurrency miners and hardware and software wallet providers
from being subject to new tax reporting provisions. The amendment would
broaden an earlier update proposed by the same lawmakers, along with
Ohio Republican Rob Portman.
The current version of the bill considers these entities to be
“brokers” that facilitate the transfer of cryptocurrencies between
users. If these entities are indeed classified as brokers, they would
have to monitor and track user transactions despite them not being
actual customers. Opponents of the proposed law say it would be nearly
impossible for miners and protocol developers to fulfill these
obligations adequately.
The cryptocurrency community has, with
few exceptions, banded together to form a united front against the
proposed infrastructure bill. Many influencers have urged
their followers to contact state and local representatives to voice
their opposition. In their view, the new tax reporting requirements are
unworkable for cryptocurrency miners, wallet providers and protocol
developers, which means their implementation would stifle innovation in
the industry and may lead to an exodus to other jurisdictions.
Related: Treasury Secretary reportedly against amending crypto language in infrastructure bill
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey opposed Warner's previous iteration of the bill, arguing that the “amendment makes it worse, especially for open source developers."
Jerry Brito, who heads Coin Center, a D.C.-based crypto think tank, wrote
a detailed thread explaining two competing amendments and how they
would impact the digital asset market. He contrasted Warner’s initial
amendment, which he described as a “misguided [attempt] to pick
technological winners and losers,” with an alternative proposal put
forth by a bipartisan group that includes Ron Wyden, Cynthia Lummis and
Pat Toomey.
Regarding Warner's revised proposal submitted on Saturday, Brito said
it's "still not as good as the Wyden-Lummis-Toomey amendment,” which
excludes protocol developers from the tax reporting requirement.
Barring any further delays, the Senate is expected to vote on the bill late Saturday or on Sunday.
Related: SEC claims first enforcement action in $30M fraud case involving DeFi project
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/2-senators-introduce-pro-crypto-amendment-to-infrastructure-bill-industry-says-it-s-not-enough
