US House Ways and Means Committee Releases Crypto Tax Package with Miner-Reward Deferral Removed

The US House Ways and Means Committee has released a 114-page Crypto Tax package that removes a provision allowing miners and stakers to defer taxes until they sell their tokens. This decision comes at a time when lawmakers are weighing several digital asset proposals, and industry groups are pushing for clearer rules on how mining and staking rewards should be taxed.

The Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act, H.R. 10357, was released alongside the committee's markup notice. The Crypto Tax package excludes the reward-timing option from Representative Mike Carey's earlier proposal, which would have let taxpayers choose whether to recognize newly created tokens as income when received or treat them like self-created property and pay tax only when sold.

Industry groups argue that this creates liquidity challenges for participants who cannot immediately convert rewards. The package still retains several mining and staking measures, including classifying income from blockchain validator activities as ordinary income, determining whether that income is sourced inside or outside the United States, and allowing qualifying investment trusts to stake digital assets without losing their trust status.

The Crypto Tax package arrives as the Senate considers advancing the CLARITY Act, which would define how the SEC and CFTC divide oversight of the US crypto market. Advocacy groups have responded by urging Congress to pass Carey's legislation as introduced, warning that taxing rewards before they can be sold creates liquidity problems.