Illinois wants to impose a 0.2% tax on every digital asset transaction—even if the transaction makes no money. The U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, SIFMA, and a crypto coalition led by a16z, Paradigm, and Uniswap have all filed briefs with the court urging it to strike down the tax. The DOJ and the DeFi camp taking the same side is a rare sight.
While reviewing the filings, I noticed one detail: the tax doesn’t look at profits; it applies to the act of transacting itself. Even a losing swap would owe 0.2%, pushing compliance costs onto every on-chain interaction. My take is straightforward: this isn’t a tax-design problem. It treats the act of transacting itself as the tax base, and it’s unlikely to get the green light at the federal level.
$BTC $UNI
While reviewing the filings, I noticed one detail: the tax doesn’t look at profits; it applies to the act of transacting itself. Even a losing swap would owe 0.2%, pushing compliance costs onto every on-chain interaction. My take is straightforward: this isn’t a tax-design problem. It treats the act of transacting itself as the tax base, and it’s unlikely to get the green light at the federal level.
$BTC $UNI
