Several U.S. lawmakers expressed their concerns about a proposed digital asset tax plan to the U.S. Treasury in a letter dated Nov. 15, saying it could stifle innovation and adversely affect the digital asset ecosystem.

The letter specifically concerns the tax rules that the Treasury Department proposed on August 25. In today’s letter, the lawmakers called the proposal “unworkable” and argued that the rules in their current form would hinder innovation and harm the digital asset ecosystem.

Lawmakers warned that the new rules would expand the term “broker” to apply to a wide range of digital asset services, which explicitly includes DeFi services. They argued that the rule could even apply to DeFi platforms that typically do not know the identity of their users and could require many digital asset services to submit duplicate tax reports.

Lawmakers further expressed concern that an overly broad or poorly defined term “digital asset” could include non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and payment stablecoins, which could lead to regulatory complications. They argued that these assets should not be considered financial instruments or investment vehicles, respectively.

Lawmakers also called the comment period and implementation deadline “unreasonably short.” They asked for the deadline to be extended to Dec. 31, 2023.

Bipartisan letter

The bipartisan letter was signed by nine different lawmakers from both parties. The committee is led by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry and Rep. Ritchie Torres. Other lawmakers who signed the letter included Majority Whip Tom Emmer and Reps. Warren Davidson, Eric Swalwell, Wiley Nickel, French Hill, Byron Donalds and Erin Houchin.

Despite recent progress, the debate around digital asset taxation has been a contentious issue for some time. Many lawmakers complained about the proposed tax rules in a letter in January 2022. McHenry also criticized the proposal in August, while others, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has publicly opposed cryptocurrency, called for faster implementation.

Incidentally, the same congressmen signed another letter today asking the Biden administration to provide information about Hamas’ cryptocurrency funding. On the same day, a House subcommittee also held a hearing on the role of cryptocurrency in crime. #财政部  #数字资产