Senators ask Treasury to put out guidance for crypto brokers by year's end

On December 14, six U.S. senators wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, asking her to keep their original intent in mind as the Treasury Department implements new tax reporting provisions for crypto brokers. 

In the letter, Senators Portman, Warner, Crapo, Sinema, Toomey and Lummis asked Yellen to verify previous statements from the Biden administration that indicated:

"[T]hat the reporting requirements only cover brokers who enable the transfer of digital assets for consideration — and not other parties which are ancillary to the process unless they are serving in an additional capacity as brokers."

While the Administrative Procedures Act requires a number of steps from the Treasury before any final rules on crypto brokers, the senators "urge the Department of the Treasury to provide information or informal guidance as soon as possible — no later than the end of the current calendar year."

The new broker language is part of the infrastructure bill that President Biden signed a month ago. At the time of that bill's passage in the Senate, it was already a subject of major controversy due to the language that in theory might include network participants like node operators and miners.

Several of the senators signatory to the letter were key members of the bipartisan group that drafted the original bill's language, while others were part of efforts to limit the crypto reporting provision before it could pass.