TL;DR
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The IRS drafted a bill that wants crypto companies to report all user transactions to them – audit or, no audit – whether folks are buying a cup of coffee, or a house.
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Setting this level of financial surveillance as ‘default’ isn’t something the crypto community is willing to accept.
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Which is why they collectively left 120,000 public comments on the drafted bill and forced a public hearing for later today.
Full Story
This feels weird to say, but…we have a juicy story for you, regarding tax law.
First, here’s some context…
The problem: US tax law surrounding crypto is kinda vague, which stops a lot of investors from entering the space.
The solution: Write/enact crypto-specific tax laws, so everyone knows which rules to play by.
The problem with the solution: some of the new laws proposed by the IRS have been seen by the crypto community as an overreach as far as privacy goes…
Representatives from Coinbase (who have obviously never seen the Edward Snowden documentary) have gone as far as saying that the new proposed laws:
“Would impose an unprecedented, unchecked and unlimited tracking on the daily lives of Americans”.
Right…so what’s the deal? Is the IRS actually overreaching?
Yeah, kinda.
The current draft wants crypto companies (like Coinbase) to report all user transactions to them – whether folks are buying a cup of coffee, or a house.
Which, sure, is something that they (The IRS) can already access outside of crypto – the difference is, this kind of thing currently requires permission, e.g:
“Hey, we’re auditing you – give us access to your bank/credit statements so we can make sure you’re not dodging taxes (or risk jail time).”
Setting this level of financial surveillance as ‘default’ isn’t something the crypto community is willing to accept, which is why they collectively left 120,000 public comments on the drafted bill and forced a public hearing for later today.
(Let’s hope it has an effect!)
