On August 10, the Senate passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), a $1 trillion bill that would fund infrastructure projects and increase cryptocurrency reporting requirements.
The IIJA would treat “any person who (for consideration) is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person” as a “broker” under Section 6045. Digital asset brokers would be required to collect identifying information from cryptocurrency users and report their annual activity to the IRS. If enacted, these reporting requirements would become effective for transactions entered into after December 31, 2022.
Although the IIJA’s definition of broker is broad, a U.S. Treasury official, speaking anonymously, told Bloomberg that guidance would narrow the definition to exempt developers, miners, and hardware and software providers (so long as they didn’t also act as brokers by having customers and transaction data).
Increased digital asset transaction reporting requirements are projected to generate approximately $28 billion over ten years.