Miners & Stakers are Not Brokers, Says Treasury Department

Miners and stakers in the U.S. would have breathed a collective sigh of relief as the U.S. Treasury exempts them from reporting transaction information to the Internal Revenue Service.

The U.S. Treasury Department is giving crypto miners and stakers a reprieve. The famous bipartisan tax infrastructure bill that labeled miners and stakers as brokers for Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reporting is being reviewed.

A letter sent to a group of senators on Friday confirmed the exclusion of miners and stakers from reporting on their clients’ transactions. In it, the Treasury Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, Jonathan Davidson, said of Treasury’s view on the matter. “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,“ he said. This statement implies that individuals who engage in validating transactions, such as miners and stakers and software and hardware companies, are exempt from the reporting. It is nearly impossible for them to get information that would be useful to the IRS.

Clarity still pending for CEX, DEX, and P2P marketplaces

The information required from the brokers includes names and addresses, gross proceeds from sales, and capital gains or losses. Davidson said that the Treasury Department is likely to issue regulations in the future that indicates the department’s thoughts on the broker definition.

The Treasury took over the effort to clarify IRS reporting rules, as the Treasury has to interpret the law through regulations. Davidson said that the Treasury is still working on to what extent centralized exchanges, decentralized exchanges, and peer-to-peer exchanges should be regarded as brokers.

Vocal senate support has been key

Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, and Ohio Republican Rob Portman were critical in narrowing the definition during the legislative procedure. They reached a deal with the Biden administration to amend the broker definition. However, the deal required unanimous Senate support, which they couldn’t get. This was because Alabama Republican Richard Shelby objected to an aspect of the bill concerning military spending.

Senator Ted Cruz was an early protestor against the previously broad definition of “broker” when the infrastructure bill was first signed into law. Senator Pat Toomey sought to work alongside the Biden administration to try to narrow the definition of “broker.” Toomey, a Republican who belongs to the Senate Banking Committee, said that he was optimistic after seeing the letter but wants Congress to pass legislation to set in stone the newly proposed definitions. Treasury’s note may also concern raised by Block Inc., Coinbase Global Inc., and Coin Center.

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