US Lawmakers Says IRS Should Issue Guidance on Crypto Taxation

Lawmakers from the United States have called on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to release elucidated and “comprehensive” crypto taxation guidance.

The solons made this known in an open letter that was submitted just recently.

Congress members David Schweikert, Darin LaHood, and Brad Wenstrup, Kevin Brady and Lynn Jenkins from the Committee on Ways and Means sent the letter to acting IRS commissioner David Kautter.

It starts by calling attention to a previous letter sent by the representatives in May of last year, which had already probed the agency’s lack of an all-inclusive crypto taxation strategy. Since then, the lawmakers said that “the IRS [has] continue[d] to expand its enforcement activities [but] without issuing any further guidance for taxpayers.”

The representatives believe that the IRS has had “more than adequate time” to work through difficulties after its initial rules were released four years ago. These indicated that crypto would be treated as property for tax purposes in the U.S., and were issued in March 2014.

The lawmakers note that in September 2016, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration had reported that the IRS crypto tax strategy was inadequate, and had already called for an apprised guidance at the time, further expressing that other groups have since called on the agency to offer more clarity for taxpayers.

However, the lawmakers consider that:

“Despite the issuance of only preliminary guidance on this issue [back in March 2014], the IRS has made enforcement of this guidance a priority, undertaking robust enforcement actions on a number of fronts.”

As an example of the IRS’ tough enforcement actions to date, the lawmakers draw attention to the agency’s ruling to summon records from American users of crypto exchange and wallet service provider Coinbase in July 2017.

The lawmakers argue that while the IRS has proactively continued to remind taxpayers of the penalties for non-compliance with its guidance, its failure to present a more robust taxation framework “severely hinders taxpayers' ability” to meet their obligations.

The letter closes by saying that the representatives would be asking the Government Accountability Office to conduct an audit on the matter.

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://www.cryptalnews.com/us-lawmakers-irs-issue-guidance-crypto-taxation/

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