Last week, the US Congress passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill in the United States, proving to give headaches for the DeFi people.
After much deliberation and debate, the bill passed 228-206, making funds available for much-needed upgrades to America’s critical infrastructure.
While the bill will mean funding for roads, pipelines, and the electric grid, it also has a clause on reporting financial transactions that will make life difficult for criminals operating in the digital currency sector and any business involved in decentralized finance (DeFi).
US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler had said earlier, “The Wild West era of Crypto will come to an end. It’s happening before our eyes. Thankfully Bitcoin was designed with this end in mind, and it’s ready for the new legally-compliant era in digital assets.” Gary was also in the press about his position on Crypto in the US when he said that only Congress could ban Crypto now.
What rules affect DeFi and why?
- It brings in new reporting requirements that make it necessary for businesses to share details about senders of digital assets. The government will use these reports to investigate suspicious activity.
- The Bill itself is an amendment to tax code section 60501. This law is designed to target criminal activity. Unlike many other IRS reportings, a violation to the new rules will be considered a full fledge felony.
- In addition, the report burden will not only apply to intermediaries like exchanges or so; But will also apply to all businesses anc could potentially include individuals. The only firms which are exempted are banks and financial institutions which already report such information under the Bank Secrecy Act.
- It defines cash to include “any digital asset,” so all digital currencies, NFTs, and other digital items are covered.
The key thing to note is that some elements must be present in the transaction for the rules to apply to a transaction. For example, a person receiving, Digital Assets and the value should be exceeding $10,000. Also, when the transaction targets the recipients’ trade or business.
As noted earlier, The transaction will be exempted if a federally regulated financial institution is already reporting. However, where applicable, the business is required to report information about the sender to the IRS.
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