Policy Scoop with Aislinn Keely: Crypto tax experts dig into the infrastructure bill's impact

Episode 2 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Aislinn Keely and Justin Woodward, tax attorney & co-founder of TaxBit and Seth Wilks, Senior Director of SME & Government Relations, at TaxBit

Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to [email protected].

This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Kraken & Chainalysis
Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 725 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $1.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com.

About Kraken
Whether you’re an experienced crypto trader or just starting out, Kraken has the tools to help you achieve financial freedom. With 50+ cryptocurrencies to choose from, industry-leading security and a wide variety of features to suit any investing strategy, Kraken puts the power in your hands to buy, sell and trade digital assets. Visit Kraken.com to get started today.

About Chainalysis
Chainalysis is the blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Our data powers investigation, compliance, and market intelligence software that has been used to solve some of the world’s most high-profile criminal cases and grow consumer access to cryptocurrency safely. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.


Last year, cryptocurrency concerns took center stage in an ongoing debate over the US government's trillion-dollar infrastructure bill.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act proposed a variety of ways to pay for its intended projects, including a heightened focus on crypto tax reporting. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has long teased unified broker reporting for exchanges, meaning entities that fall under the broker definition will be required to report information and send tax forms to the IRS. The infrastructure bill made it official: broker reporting is coming in 2023. 

But some are worried the bill's definition of a "broker" is too broad and could encompass entities that can't reasonably report to the IRS, like miners or decentralized finance (DeFi) entities. Key amendments to clarify that definition failed to pass, and it's now all on the Treasury to clarify "broker" in its upcoming guidance.

In this week's Policy Scoop, The Block's Aislinn Keely dives into the current landscape of crypto tax reporting and how the coming guidance might affect taxpayers.

THE SCOOP

Keep up with the latest news, trends, charts and views on crypto and DeFi with a new biweekly newsletter from The Block's Frank Chaparro

By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Keely spoke with Justin Woodward, tax attorney and co-founder of TaxBit, and Seth Wilks, Senior Director of SME and Government Relations at TaxBit about:

  • The historical context of the long-awaited broker reporting guidance and why it matters.
  • What will likely be in the guidance and why it's likely to affect centralized exchanges first.
  • When it will take effect and what that might look like.
  • How the IRS is thinking about DeFi and non-fungible tokens.

© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

Aislinn Keely is a reporter on The Block's policy team holding down the legal beat. She covers court decisions, bankruptcies, regulatory actions and other key moments in the legal sphere, putting them in context for the wider crypto industry. Before The Block, she lent her voice to the NPR affiliate WFUV and helmed Fordham University's student newspaper. Send tips or thoughts on all things policy and legal to [email protected] or follow her on Twitter for updates @AislinnKeely.