US Crypto Tax Bill Clears House Ways and Means in 38-5 Vote
The House Ways and Means Committee passed the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act on September 16, 2026, in a striking 38-5 bipartisan vote, pushing forward the most detailed federal crypto tax legislation the US has seen to date. The bill rewrites the rules on USDT tax, USDC tax, crypto staking tax, DeFi, lending, and everyday transaction fees. If it reaches the President's desk unchanged, it will fundamentally alter how tens of millions of American crypto holders calculate and report their taxes.
What the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act Actually Does
The bill is broad. It touches almost every corner of the digital asset ecosystem, from stablecoin holders making routine payments to miners generating block rewards and DeFi users earning protocol fees. Here is what each major provision does in plain terms.
Stablecoin Tax Treatment: USDT and USDC
Under current law, every disposal of a stablecoin, including using USDC or USDT to buy another token or to pay for a service, is a taxable event. You must calculate the gain or loss against your cost basis each time. The bill proposes special treatment for qualifying dollar-pegged stablecoins, which would mean that routine conversions and payments using those tokens would no longer trigger the same capital-gains analysis that applies to volatile assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum.
This matters enormously for everyday users. Anyone who keeps a USDC balance to pay gas fees, settle DeFi positions, or move funds between exchanges is currently exposed to a trail of micro-reportable events. The new treatment aims to align stablecoins more closely with how cash equivalents are handled, reducing that compliance drag substantially. Whether "qualifying" ultimately captures USDT, USDC, and similar tokens in full will depend on final regulatory definitions, which the bill delegates to the Treasury.
Crypto Staking Tax and Mining Income
The bill introduces new rules for how mining and staking income is recognised and taxed. Under existing IRS guidance, staking and mining rewards are treated as ordinary income at the fair market value on the date of receipt. The legislation codifies a framework specifically for these activities rather than leaving filers to rely on Revenue Ruling 2023-14 alone.
The precise mechanics, particularly whether the income recognition point can be deferred until disposal in any circumstances, remains one of the more contested aspects of the bill. Earlier draft legislation that would have allowed miners and stakers to defer income recognition was dropped from this version. What survives is a clearer statutory basis for the income rules, which is still a meaningful step toward the regulatory certainty that staking participants have been asking for.
Digital Asset Lending
When you lend crypto through a protocol or a platform, the current tax treatment is ambiguous. Some practitioners treat the transfer as a disposal triggering capital gains; others argue it should be treated like a securities lending arrangement. The bill establishes specific rules for qualifying digital asset lending agreements, addressing that ambiguity and aligning the treatment more closely with how traditional securities lending is handled for tax purposes.
For active DeFi participants who regularly provide liquidity or lend assets, this is a significant clarification. It reduces the risk of an IRS audit recharacterising a lending arrangement as a taxable sale.
Transaction Fee De Minimis Exemption
Perhaps the most practically impactful provision for ordinary users is the de minimis exemption for network and transaction fees of $10 or less. Today, if you use a small amount of ETH to pay a gas fee, that disposal is technically a taxable event requiring you to record the cost basis of that ETH, the fair market value at the time of payment, and the resulting gain or loss. The bill would eliminate that requirement for qualifying fees at or below the $10 threshold.
This single change could wipe out hundreds of reportable line items per year for active users. It also reduces the administrative burden on brokers and platforms that must currently track and report these micro-disposals.
Wash-Sale Rules Extended to Digital Assets
One area where the bill tightens rather than loosens the rules is wash sales. Currently, the wash-sale rule, which disallows a loss deduction if you repurchase a substantially identical asset within 30 days, applies to securities but not to crypto. The bill would extend wash-sale treatment to widely traded digital assets, closing a gap that some investors have been using to harvest losses at year-end while maintaining their positions.
For anyone running a tax-loss harvesting strategy, this is a material change. Once enacted, selling Bitcoin to realise a loss and buying it back within 30 days would disallow that loss for tax purposes, just as it does for stocks.
The Senate Picture: Market Structure Bill Stalls
Cloture Fails 49-50
The Ways and Means vote came one day after the Senate failed to advance a separate, broader market structure bill. That bill, which would have established a federal regulatory framework for digital assets and drawn clearer lines between SEC and CFTC jurisdiction, fell on a 49-50 cloture vote on Tuesday, short of the 60 votes needed to proceed to floor debate.
Senator Cynthia Lummis, chair of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets and a lead sponsor, was direct in her criticism after the vote, saying on X that Democrats had repeatedly moved the goalposts on demands over more than a year of negotiations, ultimately voting against consumer protections and restrictions on politicians' personal crypto holdings.
Regulators Signal They Will Act Anyway
The Senate setback did not slow down the regulators. SEC Chair Paul Atkins posted on X that the agency would "act decisively within the SEC's statutory authority to deliver certainty for American investors," with or without new legislation. CFTC Chair Michael Selig made a similar statement, saying the CFTC was "locked in and ready to ship its rules" using existing authority. Both signals suggest that regulatory guidance will continue to flow regardless of the legislative outcome, which is relevant for practitioners who advise clients on compliance posture in the interim.
What This Means for Individual Filers
Stablecoin Users
If you hold USDT or USDC and use them regularly, the stablecoin provisions are the most immediately relevant. You won't know for certain what "qualifying" means until Treasury publishes definitions, but the direction of travel is toward treating these tokens more like cash for tax purposes. In the meantime, keep recording every disposal. The bill is not law yet, and you cannot rely on proposed treatment until it is enacted and the Treasury has issued implementing guidance.
Stakers and DeFi Participants
Your staking rewards are still ordinary income at the point of receipt under current law. The bill doesn't change that fundamental treatment, but it does give it a cleaner statutory foundation. If you're staking ETH, SOL, or any other proof-of-stake asset, continue tracking the fair market value of each reward on the date you receive it. The wash-sale extension is the bigger near-term action item: if you tax-loss harvest crypto positions, review your 30-day buy-back windows before the bill becomes law, because that window could close quickly once it passes.
Active Traders Paying Gas Fees
The $10 de minimis fee exemption would be welcome relief if enacted. But until it is, every gas fee paid in ETH or another token remains a reportable disposal. Keep your records current. If the exemption passes, it will likely apply prospectively, not retroactively, meaning prior-year filings will not benefit.
What This Means for Accounting Firms and CFOs
Advising Clients Now
The 38-5 vote signals genuine bipartisan momentum, but committee passage is not enactment. The bill still needs to pass the full House, clear the Senate (where the market structure bill just failed), and be signed into law. Advise clients to maintain current compliance posture: every stablecoin disposal is taxable, staking rewards are income at receipt, and no wash-sale exemption applies to crypto. Document that advice in writing.
Preparing for the Wash-Sale Change
The wash-sale extension is the provision with the largest near-term planning implication for high-net-worth clients and corporate treasury holders. If a client is currently running a crypto tax-loss harvesting program, model the impact of losing that flexibility now. Waiting until enactment to adjust strategy could be costly if the bill moves quickly through the Senate.
Lending and DeFi Exposure
For clients with material DeFi or lending exposure, the qualifying lending agreement framework is worth tracking closely. Once Treasury publishes the qualifying criteria, you will need to re-examine how existing arrangements are classified and whether any prior-year positions need to be reconsidered. Flag this for any clients currently treating crypto loans as non-taxable transfers.
Next Steps in the Legislative Process
The bill now heads to the full House for a floor vote. If it passes there, it moves to the Senate, where the recent market structure bill failure shows that 60 votes for cloture remain difficult to assemble. Reconciliation is one possible path that avoids the 60-vote threshold, but that route comes with its own procedural constraints. The timeline is uncertain, and the final text may change materially before enactment.
Watch for Treasury and IRS guidance even before enactment. As the SEC and CFTC comments above show, regulators are prepared to act within existing authority, and interim guidance on stablecoins, staking, or lending classification could arrive independently of this bill's fate.
For a full breakdown of earlier proposals that shaped this bill, including the provisions that were dropped along the way, see our coverage of the House Ways and Means Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act and the related mining and staking deferral exclusion.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the bill make USDT and USDC tax-free?
No. The bill proposes special treatment for qualifying dollar-pegged stablecoins that would reduce or eliminate the gain-or-loss calculation on routine disposals, but it does not make them categorically tax-free. The precise scope depends on Treasury definitions that have not yet been published, and the bill is not law. Continue treating every stablecoin disposal as a taxable event until enactment and subsequent guidance.
Is crypto staking tax changing under this bill?
The bill provides a statutory framework for staking and mining income rather than leaving filers to rely solely on IRS revenue rulings. However, the earlier proposal to allow income deferral until disposal was removed from this version. Under the bill as passed by committee, staking rewards would still be treated as ordinary income on receipt. The change is primarily one of legal clarity rather than a reduction in tax liability.
What is the wash-sale rule and why does extending it to crypto matter?
The wash-sale rule disallows a loss deduction if you sell an asset at a loss and repurchase the same or substantially identical asset within 30 days. It currently applies to stocks and securities but not to crypto. Extending it to widely traded digital assets would end a common year-end strategy where investors sell crypto to realise losses and immediately buy back in. If you use this strategy, review it before the bill becomes law.
Does the $10 de minimis fee exemption apply now?
No. The bill is not yet law. The exemption would apply only after enactment and likely only to fees paid after the effective date. Until then, any crypto used to pay a network or transaction fee is a taxable disposal requiring you to track cost basis and record any gain or loss.
What happens if the bill fails in the Senate?
Current IRS rules continue to apply. As the SEC and CFTC chairs both indicated after the Senate market structure bill failed, regulators are prepared to issue guidance under existing authority. Interim guidance on stablecoins, staking, or lending could still arrive even without new legislation, so monitoring IRS and Treasury announcements remains important regardless of the bill's fate.
Source: Cointelegraph