U.S. Republican Congressman to Propose 3 Crypto-Friendly Bills

While cryptocurrencies are widely used throughout the United States, at this moment in time, the regulatory framework is complicated and confusing for users, businesses and investors.

 Because of this, recent reports indicate that a U.S. Congressman is planning to introduce three bills meant to encourage the mainstream acceptance and implementation of digital currencies and the blockchain economy.

 With this in mind, Tom Emmer, who is a Minnesota Republican will soon publish the ‘Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act’, the ‘Safe Harbour for Taxpayers with Forked Assets Act’ alongside the ‘Resolution Supporting Digital Currencies and Blockchain Technology’.

According to the representative, if accepted, the bills will provide the cryptocurrency ecosystem with a simpler legal environment, while also encouraging blockchain technology innovation, adoption and development.

To put things better into perspective, one of the bills states that investors holding forked assets will no longer face tax penalties from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), unless it provides clear reporting guidelines for the assets in question. In other words, taxpayers will be expected to fulfil their obligations once they actually known what these obligations are, under clear guidelines.

Until now, the IRS issued several warnings stating that investors who do not report their digital currency holdings and transactions, can face large fines and prison time. Additionally, the organization has also led cryptocurrency transaction investigative efforts in the past – an example in this case being the summons towards Coinbase to obtain private customer information. However, the congressman believes that such an approach isn’t just, since there is a lot of confusion regarding the types of crypto transactions subject to tax.

According to the congressman, “The United States should prioritize accelerating the development of blockchain technology and create an environment that enables the American private sector to lead on innovation and further growth, which is why I am introducing these bills.” 

Based on everything that has been outlined so far, if approved, the bills will help remove tax confusion, encourage investors to file their taxes, while also increasing crypto and blockchain innovation in the United States.