U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), one of the leaders of a bipartisan negotiation team that drafted a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, has come out in support of an amendment which would narrow the tax reporting requirements on crypto businesses.
The original provision, which seeks to raise about $28 billion from the industry, would enforce wider information reporting rules on crypto brokers, but broadened the definition to any entity which provide digital asset transfer services. Industry participants worried that the provision would include miners, node operators/validators, software developers and hardware manufacturers, among others, rather than just trading platforms like exchanges or OTC desks that actually provide these services.
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) proposed an amendment on Wednesday which would exempt the non-custodial business functions if adopted.
Portman, who previously defended the original provision and said it would not impact companies like miners, tweeted support for the Wyden/Lummis/Toomey amendment on Thursday, calling on the Senate to vote on the move.
However, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), which projected the original $28 billion figure, reportedly said the amendment could knock about $5 billion off the actual amount of tax revenue generated.
It’s unclear when the Senate might vote on the amendment. However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), is looking to close up all amendments by Thursday and set up a vote on the actual bill by Saturday, Politico reported.
Should the Senate vote to advance the bill by next week, it will move to the House of Representatives for its own vote this fall before it can be sent to the President’s office to be signed into law.
Source: Coindesk
