In a bit of good news for the crypto mining sector and staking platforms, it is being reported that crypto miners and stakers will not have to report transactions to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The news was posted by Bloomberg who stated it is in receipt of a letter from the US Department of Treasury, Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Jonathan Davidson that indicates these virtual asset service providers will not be required to provide transactional information.
According to the report:
“Treasury Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Jonathan Davidson said the department’s view is that “ancillary parties who cannot get access to information that is useful to the IRS are not intended to be captured by the reporting requirements for brokers.” That language signals that people who use mining or staking to validate crypto transactions, as well as software and hardware providers, will be able to avoid the demands.”
The letter was said to have been sent to a group of US Senators which is probably the source for the leak.
The US government has been at the forefront of advocating for record-keeping for digital asset platforms that trade in crypto – similar to banking rules. The Biden Infrascture legislation recently became law and included a poorly written section that outlined reporting requirements for the transfer of digital securities. The language was criticized by many Republicans but ended up in the final version of the bill.
Of course, this is just one aspect of the digital asset ecosystem and other platforms must maintain records of transactions so the IRS can tax any gains and the feds can gain insight into any nefarious actions.