Senate Delays Vote On Crypto Tax Amendments Issue: Report

The US Senate delays vote on the crypto tax amendments which came as a part of Biden’s infrastructure bill and now we will have to wait and see what decision will be brought so let’s read in today’s crypto news.

The amendments to the crypto provision of Biden’s infrastructure bill didn’t make it to the Senate voting procedure as the Senate will continue considering the amendments. The Warner-Portman amendment extended the exemption to proof of stake networks but the industry objected that it still picks winners and losers. The Senate didn’t find enough time to vote on two rival amendments that determine which crypto entities will provide customer information to help pay for the infrastructure bill worth $1 trillion. It is now expected that the Senate will convene to vote on the amendments and the outcome will likely send ripples over the entire US crypto industry and executives fear that one of the outcomes could force the decentralized finance entities away from the country.

Dem Sens. Mark Warner and Ron Wyden just walked from Senate subway onto the floor having what looked like serious crypto discussions.

Both have dueling amendments on crypto tax enforcement

Overheard this from Wyden: “Revenue is very important to me”

— Joseph Zeballos-Roig (@josephzeballos) August 7, 2021

One of the amendments proposed by Senators Ron Wyden, Pat Toomey, and Cynthia Lummis and favored by the industry will exempt non-custodial entities like BTC miners and wallet operators from handing over customer information to tax authorities. Senator Toomey said:

“We should not rope in people who are not actually running a centralized exchange.”

Sen. Warner has changed his amendment to protect consensus mechanisms beyond PoW. A small positive step, but not nearly good enough.

It's just unreal that this is how Congress wants to handle major crypto legislation. We need time to make smart decisions. This process is broken. https://t.co/NftUjfnqHI

— Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) August 7, 2021

The other amendment was proposed by Senators Mark Warner and Rob Portman and favored by President Biden which was revised after the industry threw cold water on it. It exempted proof of work entities such as BTC miners but didn’t remove tax reporting obligations for entities like Etheruem 2.0 validators. The industry said this was quite unworkable because non-custodial entities don’t collect info about the people that use them. Senators Warner and Portman revised the amendment to exempt both PoW and PoS entities but not any other consensus mechanism. The crypto industry doesn’t like the revision since it favors two consensus mechanisms for no apparent reason.  The reports said that Toomey and Warner were locked in conversation near the well of the Senate but no formal discussions happened. Senator Wyden said:

“I want to crack down on tax cheats. I just don’t want to destroy the innovation that comes from a decentralized network.”

🚨🚨The Senate is on the verge of passing legislation that would be TERRIBLE for cryptocurrency.🚨🚨

The infrastructure deal contains DANGEROUS provisions that would devastate crypto and blockchain innovation.

Supporters of crypto need to make their voices heard. https://t.co/iXrcnne0tV

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 7, 2021

The Senate delays vote on the crypto tax bill and the unwillingness of the senators to expedite the vote on final passage could push it until Monday or Tuesday.