Ways & Means Marks Up 114-Page Crypto Tax Bill While Senate's CLARITY Act Stalls in the Weeds 🧾

The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee advanced the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, H.R. 10357, on Wednesday with a 38-5 vote, marking the first comprehensive federal tax framework for digital assets and sending the package toward a future House floor vote. Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., called the markup a milestone, stating, "This is a historic moment for this Committee: after more than a year of working together, Republican and Democrat Members have come together to establish the first-ever tax framework for digital assets." The 114-page bill was introduced by Smith and scheduled for markup at 10 a.m. Eastern on September 16, as part of a seven-bill notice that also includes H.R. 9172.

The legislation creates a de minimis exemption that allows taxpayers to disregard gains or losses when crypto is used to pay qualifying network or transaction fees of $10 or less, and establishes special tax treatment for qualifying U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins using their redemption value as the tax basis when purchased near par. It would tax mining and staking rewards as ordinary income, classify income from blockchain validator activities as sourced inside or outside the United States, and permit qualifying investment trusts to stake digital assets without losing their trust status. The package also extends wash-sale and constructive-sale rules to digital assets, exempts qualifying crypto loans from being treated as taxable sales, and creates a voluntary disclosure program administered by the Treasury that lets eligible taxpayers amend past returns and pay outstanding taxes, interest, and penalties.

A provision that would have allowed miners and stakers to defer recognizing newly created tokens as income until the tokens are sold, contained in Rep. Mike Carey's Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act (H.R. 9175), is absent from H.R. 10357. Without it, mining and staking rewards remain taxable when received or brought under the recipient's control. In June, the Blockchain Association, Crypto Council for Innovation and Digital Chamber urged Congress to pass Carey's legislation as introduced, arguing that taxing rewards before they can be sold creates liquidity problems for miners and stakers, while opposing an amendment that would have limited the deferral to five years.

The House action followed a setback for the CLARITY Act in the Senate on September 15, where eight banking trade groups sent a letter to Senate leaders John Thune and Chuck Schumer urging tighter restrictions on stablecoin rewards, arguing that exceptions could allow interest-like payments that draw deposits away from banks. The CLARITY Act, which would determine how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission divide oversight of the U.S. crypto market, requires 60 senators to invoke cloture to advance to formal floor debate. H.R. 10357 must still clear the full House, the Senate, and the President before becoming law.