The Senate passed the bill yesterday, but last-minute provisions from Sen. Lummis to reduce crypto tax burdens failed to make it into the mega-tax bill.
A pair of tax changes that pro-crypto Senator Cynthia Lummis had hoped to get inserted into the Senate’s version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) mega-legislation didn’t make it in, but she plans to keep pushing them. The OBBB was narrowly passed by the Senate yesterday, July 1, and now is headed back to the House for review and a final vote, likely before the July 4 recess.
The first of the two provisions proposed by Sen. Lummis was a tax exemption for small crypto transactions under $300 that would prevent them from triggering capital gains tax liability. Under the current law, capital gains tax would have to be calculated and paid even for purchases as small as a can of soda. Lummis’s provision would have a $5,000 annual cap on the sub-$300 exemptions.
The second would have ended double taxation of crypto miners and stakers, who currently pay taxes on block rewards as income when they are generated, and again as capital gains when they are sold. The provision would have seen them taxed only at the point of sale.
In an emailed statement, Sen. Lummis told The Defiant:
“I had productive conversations with Chairman Crapo and other Senate Finance Committee members over the last few weeks, and I look forward to continuing to work with the Chairman and the rest of the committee to fix these important tax issues at a later date.”
Neither of the crypto tax provisions is currently in drafts of the stablecoin regulation bills from the Senate and House, or the broader crypto market structure bills working their way through the Congress.
A Big Push
Both provisions were the subject of feverish, last-minute lobbying by crypto policy organizations.
On Monday, Matthew Pines, executive director of the Bitcoin Policy Institute, asked the crypto community to take five minutes to call or email their senators, and particularly Sen. Crapo (R-Id.) to support the $300 “de minimis” tax exemption.
“Taxpayers who use Bitcoin as a medium of exchange are currently required to calculate and report capital gains or losses for minor purchases,” Pines said in an X post on Monday, June 30, continuing:
“Because they may engage in numerous transactions every week, this reporting at tax time is prohibitively burdensome and confusing. A de minimis exemption would reduce this burden, promoting fair compliance and everyday adoption.”
Also on June 30, Cody Carbone, CEO of The Digital Chamber posted an “urgent ask” on X, saying “we are on the one yard line to getting a critical, critical piece of tax clarity for digital assets and we need your help.”
Speaking of the tax treatment of block and staking rewards, he said, “this is a form of double taxation that has been really pervasive and has been chilling innovation in the market.”
Source: https://thedefiant.io/news/regulation/lummis-crypto-tax-changes-not-included-in-obbb