Digital Assets Defined: The Tax Code's Take
In June 2022, Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) introduced the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (the "Bill"), one of most comprehensive responses by Congress to date with respect to digital assets and their increasingly significant role in the U.S. economy. The legislation proposed a governance and definitional framework for digital assets across numerous areas of law, including taxation. While it is unlikely this Bill will be passed given the limited time remaining for the 117th Congress, the Bill's support of positions endorsed by the cryptocurrency industry is welcome. And it is widely anticipated that aspects of this bipartisan Bill will be incorporated in subsequent legislation, and are likely to shape the debate in future Congressional sessions.
In this White Paper, we discuss some of the Bill's most significant tax proposals.
