Infrastructure Bill Proposes New Crypto Reporting Requirements

U.S. Senate has passed the “Build America Act of 2021,”  also known as the bipartisan infrastructure bill, that includes new reporting for cryptocurrency transactions and brokers of cryptocurrency and provides for non-compliance penalties. The bill, which now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives, would require businesses that transmit digital assets to file tax information reports similar to the Form 1099 requirements for securities brokers. The definition of a person responsible for filing such reports is broad: “any person who (for consideration) is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets.” This is intended to require information reporting for cryptocurrency exchanges but could be interpreted to cast a wider net to require other segments of the blockchain industry, such as cryptocurrency payment service providers, to file information reports.