Rep. Eshoo Writes to Pelosi About the Contentious New Crypto Tax Reporting Rules

Rep. Eshoo Writes To Speaker Nancy Pelosi About A Contentious New Crypto Tax Reporting Rules

The proposal was added at the last minute to the much-debated infrastructure plan, which would invest more than $1 trillion in the nation's public works. It was passed by the Senate earlier this week and will be considered by the House later this year.

She is especially alluding to the bill's expansion of the definition of "broker" for tax reporting purposes; the present language is vague enough to involve crypto miners, validators, and software developers. 

Several modifications were offered, some of which expressly excluded miners, but none were adopted.

For Weeks, Lawmakers Have Been At Odds Over The Clause

Lawmakers representing the crypto sector, both progressive and conservative, have lobbied against this section of the law. 

They believe that miners and validators are the backbones of Web 3 infrastructure; these tax reporting requirements would compel anybody even marginally active in crypto to be identifiable to the government in some way.

This is compounded by the fact that miners have no means of identifying traders starting new transactions other than their crypto addresses. The non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation has described it as a "disaster for digital privacy."

Eshoo is the representative for California's 18th congressional district, which includes much of Silicon Valley. The hashtag #DontKillCrypto at the end of today's tweet emphasized her argument.