President Biden signs the controversial Infrastructure Bill into Law, mandating crypto reporting requirements
After months of tight scrutiny from both the US Senate and House of Representatives, the controversial Infrastructure Bill — criticized by many cryptocurrency advocates — has now officially become the law of the land.
At a White House ceremony on November 15, President Joe Biden has signed the $1 trillion Infrastructure Bill before an audience of comprising reporters, policymakers and union workers.
While the bipartisan legislation aims to provide funding for bridges, roadways, internet access, electric vehicle charging stations, solar panels and other major infrastructural projects, lawmakers included terminologies applicable to cryptocurrencies before its passage in both chambers of the US Congress.
The bill, as it was passed, would be implemented to define tighter rules on businesses handling of cryptocurrencies and the further expansion of reporting requirements for brokers. The bill mandates that, henceforth, digital asset transactions worth more than $10,000 should be reported to the Internal Revenue Service.
A group of senators had originally proposed an amendment to the bill that could potentially have clarified the crypto tax reporting requirements. Still, the proposal had failed to get sufficient approval in August 2021.
Bipartisanship and jobs seemed to be the central theme of the afternoon, with many of the speakers addressing Democrats and Republicans who have been working together to pass the bill. Biden has personally thanked Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Rob Portman, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, for their respective roles in getting the legislation across through the Senate.
Biden said that for too long, they’ve been talking about having the best economy in the world and “Today, we’re finally getting this done.” He said that “America is moving again,” and that the lives of Americans “is going to change for the better.”
The majority of senators behind amending the crypto language in the bill ultimately voted a yes. Still, Pat Toomey had criticized the legislation tagging it as “too expensive, too expansive, too unpaid for and too threatening” to the new crypto economy when it passed in the Senate. He has even called out the crypto tax reporting requirement for being “unworkable.”
While it has now become difficult for any US legal expert to change the prime substance of the crypto reporting requirements — which is slated to start in 2024 — others have reportedly used the bill’s passage as a call to action.
A Libertarian candidate, Shannon Bray, who is potential for North Carolina’s seat in the Senate, has encouraged voters to “elect crypto-friendly representatives”, apparently to fight its implementation.
Biden has signed the Infrastructure Bill despite a noted “last-ditch effort” by Senators Ron Wyden and Cynthia Lummis for changing the tax reporting requirements to “not apply to individuals who are developing blockchain technology and wallets.”
It is unclear how the bill proposed by Wyden and Lummis would be effective to the current legislation on infrastructure, which had to be passed through both the Senate and House before reaching the POTUS’s desk.
