U.S. Treasury and IRS Publish Final Rules Implementing Bipartisan Tax Reporting Requirements for Sales and Exchanges of Digital Assets

The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and the Internal Revenue Service (June 28, 2024) published final regulations on IIJA reporting requirements for digital asset brokers that align these requirements with long-standing reporting requirements for traditional financial services. Owners of digital assets have always been liable to pay tax on the sale or exchange of digital assets, and IIJA has not changed this or imposed any new taxes on digital assets. It simply created reporting requirements, similar to those that already existed for traditional financial services, to help taxpayers file accurate returns and pay taxes due under applicable law.

The final regulations announced today will require brokers to report gross receipts from sales of digital assets beginning in 2026 for all sales in 2025. Brokers will also be required to report information on the tax basis of certain digital assets beginning in 2027. in case of sale in 2026 .

“With the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Job Creation Act, digital asset investors and the IRS will have better access to the documentation they need to easily file and review their tax returns.” he said Acting Deputy Secretary for Tax Policy Aviva Aron-Dine“By implementing the law’s reporting requirements, these final regulations will help taxpayers more easily pay taxes owed under current law while reducing tax avoidance by wealthy investors.”

While owners of digital assets have always been required to pay tax on the sale or exchange of digital assets, compliant taxpayers have often been forced to rely on costly third-party services to calculate gains or losses on the sale of digital assets. These final regulations will implement a bipartisan directive from Congress to ensure that digital asset owners receive the information they need from broker-dealers to file their tax returns more accurately, easily, and less expensively, and that the IRS has the information it needs to address the risk of tax evasion posed by digital assets. .

These regulations were developed following a public hearing by the Treasury Department and the IRS and careful consideration of over 44,000 comments in response to the proposed regulations. Although today’s regulations primarily address reporting requirements for non-fiduciary brokers, the Treasury Department and the IRS anticipate issuing additional regulations later this year that establish reporting requirements for non-fiduciary brokers consistent with the statutory requirements.