US House Panel To Vote On Crypto Tax Rules That Could Reshape Bitcoin Mining And Trading

The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee is set to vote on a package of crypto tax bills on September 16.

• HR.9175 would let eligible minors and estates defer income on newly created tokens until the assets are disposed of. 
• HR 9172 would extend wash-sale and constructive-sale rules to digital assets while excluding qualified U.S. dollars and stablecoins. 
• Democrats have proposed limits on the tax deferral and separately raised concerns about digital asset income being treated as Puerto Rican-sourced. 

The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee is reportedly set to vote on a group of digital asset tax bills on September 16. This is the first time that crypto tax legislation has gone from being introduced as bills to a formal committee vote. 

It would be the panel's first move on the package since a June 9 legislative hearing on digital asset taxation. A positive vote would send the bills to the full House floor. As of Saturday, the committee had not posted a markup notice on its schedule. This means that the final bill list was not yet known. However, according to Bloomberg, the bill is set to be voted on September 16. 

Miners Get Deferral Option

The two measures introduced June 8 have drawn the most attention. H.R. 9175, the Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act, by Representative Mike Carey (R-OH), clarifies that the new tokens are considered ordinary income when received, but it also gives miners and stakers an election to defer that income until they dispose of the assets. 

Under the current IRS treatment, a validator may owe income tax the moment block rewards land in a wallet, even if they do not sell. Gain on a deferred asset is treated as coming from property that is not a capital asset, so it stays ordinary. 

Wash-Sale Bill Targets Crypto Tax-Loss Trades

H.R. 9172, Applying Existing Tax Anti-Abuse Rules to Digital Assets Act, from Representative Jodey Arrington (R-TX), would extend the Section 1091 wash-sale and Section 1259 constructive-sale rules to digital assets, ending the practice of selling crypto at a loss and rebuying it minutes later to book the deduction. However, the bill carves out qualified U.S. dollar stablecoins. 

Traders currently sell crypto at a loss, claim the deduction, and repurchase the same asset minutes later without penalty. The bill applies to dispositions after its June 8 introduction date. It also exempts tokens acquired through mining and staking, so block rewards received inside a 30-day window would not trip the rule. 

The Joint Committee on Taxation, the nonpartisan body that scores tax bills for Congress, estimates H.R. 9172 would bring in about $2.07 billion in extra federal revenue over 10 years. That money comes from crypto losses that traders could no longer deduct once the wash-sale rule applied. 

Democrats Push For Limits On Crypto Tax Deferrals

The June 9 hearing took testimony from Coinbase (COIN), Fidelity, the advocacy group Coin Center, and the Tax Law Center at NYU Law. Democrats have pushed back on how far the deferral goes. 

Representative Steven Horsford (D-NV) filed an amendment that would cap the mining, staking, and election at 5 years and limit deductions for donated tokens that are not widely traded to what the charity actually receives when it sells them.

Committee Democrats also released a discussion draft for the End Digital Assets Tax Shelter Act, targeting U.S. citizens who avoid tax by treating digital asset income as Puerto Rican-sourced. 

Bitcoin’s price was trading at $77,338, down over 0.5% in the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around BTC dipped to ‘extremely bearish’ from ‘bearish’ levels, accompanied by ‘low’ chatter levels over the last 24 hours.

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.<