The U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS released final regulations on June 28 defining new reporting requirements for digital asset brokers.
Crypto brokers, including exchanges, will be required to report gross revenues for crypto sales starting in 2026. This includes crypto sales in 2025.
Additionally, from 2027 onwards, brokers will have to report information on the tax basis of some cryptos for sales that occurred in 2026.
The new regulations set rules for crypto brokers that are in line with those for traditional financial brokers, but do not affect what taxpayers owe. The Treasury said:
“Digital asset owners always owe taxes on the sale or exchange of digital assets.”
The Treasury Department said the rules are part of the Biden-Harris administration’s implementation of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which did not impose new taxes on crypto but “simply created reporting requirements.”
The latest requirements mainly concern custody brokers. The Treasury Department expects to issue rules for non-custodial brokers before the end of the year, in line with regulatory requirements.
Benefits for Investors and IRS
Acting Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Aviva Aron-Dine said crypto investors “will have better access to the documentation they need to easily file and assess tax returns.”
Previously, investors had to use expensive third-party services to calculate profits and losses from cryptocurrency sales. In contrast, the new requirements will provide investors with all necessary information in accordance with Congress’s bipartisan directive.
Meanwhile, the IRS will have access to information it needs to address the tax evasion risks associated with cryptocurrencies, including tax evasion by wealthy investors.
Earlier resistance from the industry
The Treasury Department and the IRS said they held public hearings and considered more than 44,000 comments before finalizing the rules.
Reuters separately quoted Treasury Department officials as saying the final requirements have been changed from their previous form. The latest requirements reduce the burden on brokers, phase in the requirements and set a $10,000 threshold for reporting stablecoin transactions.
Reuters noted that the industry had conducted “a campaign of comment letters” in 2023, focusing on privacy concerns and the breadth of the requirements’ definition of brokers.
One company that opposed it was Coinbase, which complained in October 2023 that the regulations would impose “unprecedented, unmonitored and unrestricted tracking” on users’ daily lives and create new and burdensome reporting requirements.