Crypto Fees Under $10 Would Be Tax-Free Unless You Made…

A sweeping U.S. crypto tax bill would stop investors from recognizing taxable gains or losses when they use digital assets to pay network or transaction fees of $10 or less, but the exemption disappears for taxpayers who made more than 5,000 digital-asset transfers in the previous year. The House Ways and Means Committee will mark up the 114-page Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, H.R. 10357, at 10:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday, September 16. That puts the congressional debate on the same day as the Federal Reserve's policy decision, scheduled for 2:00 p.m. ET. The legislation was introduced September 14 by Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, with Reps. Jodey Arrington, Aaron Bean, Mike Carey, Steven Horsford, Mike Kelly, David Kustoff, Max Miller and Rudy Yakym joining him. CoinDesk said the package follows earlier digital-asset tax work by Horsford and Miller. The bill reaches well beyond the small-fee exemption. It covers accounting for crypto gains and losses, stablecoins, lending, wash sales, tokenized assets, mining and staking, broker reporting and a voluntary disclosure program for taxpayers seeking to correct earlier digital-asset tax problems. Crypto Fees of $10 or Less Get a De Minimis Exemption For ordinary crypto users, the most immediate provision is the proposed de minimis exception. Under current tax treatment, using cryptocurrency to pay a blockchain fee can itself amount to a disposition of the asset, potentially creating a reportable gain or loss even when the fee is only a few dollars. H.R. 10357 would provide that no gain or loss is recognized when a digital asset is disposed of to pay a qualifying network fee or transaction fee that does not exceed $10. The definition covers network validation costs as well as brokerage, trading, liquidity and similar fees that facilitate a digital-asset transfer. There is a significant activity limit. The exception would generally not apply to a person who engaged in more than 5,000 digital-asset transfers during the preceding taxable year. Traders, brokers, dealers and businesses that facilitate transaction validation are also excluded, subject to possible Treasury guidance. The $10 fee provision would apply to dispositions after December 31, 2027 if the legislation becomes law in its current form. Crypto Traders Would Lose the Wash-Sale Advantage The bill gives ordinary holders a reporting break on small fees while taking away a tax advantage that cryptocurrency traders have had over investors in traditional securities. H.R. 10357 would extend federal wash-sale rules to traded digital assets. Those rules generally prevent an investor from immediately claiming a tax loss when an asset is sold at a loss and a substantially identical asset is repurchased within the statutory wash-sale window.