After a week filled with controversy on the much debated Infrastructure Bill per the provisions of cryptocurrencies, Senator Pat Toomey has announced that a bipartisan compromise has been reached ahead of the Tuesday session in which Congress is billed to vote on all amendments and the bill as a whole. Speaking at a Press Conference, the Senator confirmed that the compromise now features a clause in which the new amendment would exempt software developers, transaction validators, and node operators, in the tax reporting requirements.
The compromise which is supported by all the factions with opposing proposals including Senators Cynthia Lummis, Rob Portman, Mark Warner, Kyrsten Sinema, Ron Wyden and Pat Toomey now maintains that the crypto reporting requirement “should only apply to the intermediaries.” This intermediaries include entities with the capability or infrastructural design to comply include cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase, and Kraken amongst others.
Per the compromise attained, the clause in the amendment could still be added to the infrastructure bill HR 3684, as long as there is no objection whatsoever.
“We came together to provide greater clarity on the rules for who are the actual brokers of cryptocurrency,” said Toomey. “We’re not proposing anything sweeping or anything radical. Our solution makes clear that a broker means only those persons who conduct transactions where consumers buy, sell, and trade digital assets.”
According to Senator Toomey as well as many in the digital currency ecosystem, the compromise may not be the best for the entire industry, however, it is much more ideal compared to the original texts of the original bill.
The Silver Lining
As a major party to the bipartisan compromise, Senator Cynthia Lummis has highlighted the silver lining to the entire debate amongst the lawmakers and the broad crypto community.
“We can’t afford to get this wrong,” said Senator Lummis in the press conference. “We need to ensure that people aren’t trying to avoid taxes by sheltering their money in digital taxes, but we have to do it in a way that doesn’t stifle innovation.”
“The silver lining behind all of this debate and discussion is that we found out who in the Senate is interested in this subject who maybe previously didn’t know anything about it […] We finally were able to illustrate to members of the Senate that there are a lot of people that are interested in digital assets, working in some aspect of digital assets, and now have contact with their U.S. Senators.”
Should the new amendment be voted on in the Senate tomorrow, it will be passed to Congress where there is expected to be a bipartisan vote on the mother bill.
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