Six senators are calling on the finance minister to clarify the definition of broker in the law
According to US lawmakers, the Infrastructure Act has “an overly broad interpretation” of what a broker is and places the burden of reporting on individuals who may not have the information they need to comply.
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A bipartisan group of US Senators has urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to clarify the wording of an infrastructure bill signed by President Joe Biden on money tax reporting.
In a letter Tuesday, Senators Rob Portman, Mike Crapo, Pat Toomey, Mark Warner, Kyrsten Sinema and Cynthia Lummis urged Yellen to provide “informal information or guidance” on the definition of “broker” in the recently passed Infrastructure Act HR 3684 in current usage All miners, software developers, transaction validators, and node operators working in the crypto space are required to report most transactions in digital assets worth more than $ 10,000 to the Internal Revenue Service or the IRS.
However, according to US lawmakers, the law “over-interprets” what a broker is and places an undue burden on some individuals who may not have the necessary information about the transaction. Six people said Yellen has the right to use the Administrative Procedure Act, which sets out how federal agencies can develop and enact regulations. In this case, they ask them to submit a set of rules to clarify the definition of a broker as “urgent” or by the end of the year at the latest.
“We ask that you carefully examine the characteristics of the technologies driving this space, which may include differences in the consensus mechanisms of various distributed ledgers and second-tier protocols,” said six senators. “Digital assets can be a powerful technological advancement in certain areas, and clear guidelines on tax reporting requirements will be vital for those in this ecosystem.”
Related: US lawmakers introduce bill to “fix” crypto reporting requirements under infrastructure law
The letter is the latest attempt by US lawmakers to change the tax reporting requirement in infrastructure law. Toomey, Lummis, Sinema, Portman, Warner, and others backed a bipartisan agreement to amend it when the Senate passed the bill in August, but the proposal was derailed by the Senate. Dr. Richard Shelby of Alabama would like to add his own amendment to the bill. Senators Ron Wyden and Lummis also attempted to pass laws on the same day the bill went into effect that would have changed tax reporting requirements so that they “do not apply to individuals developing blockchain technology and wallets “.
“Now that this bill has become law, it is up to Congress to ensure that it is effectively implemented and is in line with the intentions of Congress,” said the six senators.
Portman, Crapo, Toomey, Warner, Sinema and Lummis added that they were “prepared to legislate” to clarify the definition of a broker.