Time Is Running Out, Senators Reached A Compromise On Crypto Tax Provisions In The Infrastructure Bill

The U.S. Senate passed the Warner-Sinema-Portman Infrastructure Act amendment with 68 votes in favor and 29 votes against it. 

The amendment defines brokers too broadly, and the scope of the report may involve crypto miners and software developers, which has been opposed by the crypto industry and some crypto-friendly lawmakers. The Senate still has 30 hours of debate after this vote, which means that it will not finally decide whether the amendment will eventually be signed into law until Tuesday morning.

According to a report from Coindesk, the crypto-friendly Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said that the senators behind two amendments to the definition of "brokers" in the bill have reached a compromise.

The amendment proposed by Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Lummis, and Toomey exempts non-broker-type entities from the legislation. The amendment from Ron Portman (R-Ohio), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) will only exempt verifiers in the proof-of-work or proof-of-stake network. 

The full text of the compromise is not immediately available, but Toomey stated that it will specify who has tax declaration obligations in the digital asset field. For example, software developers, node operators, and verifiers do not need to collect or report transaction information, but brokers do. 

Toomey said at the press conference that all six senators support the new compromise. He said: "We’re not proposing anything sweeping or anything radical – [the compromise] makes clear that a broker means only those persons that conduct transactions where consumers buy, sell and trade digital assets."

By Mary Liu

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