House readies crypto tax bill before Wednesday markup

Right now, mining or staking cryptocurrency comes with an awkward tax bill. The IRS taxes you the moment you receive new coins, even if you haven't sold a single one. A bill unveiled Monday by the House Ways and Means Committee would change that. It would let miners and stakers wait to pay tax until they actually sell. A committee vote on the text is set for Wednesday.

This has been a years-long complaint in the crypto industry. Paying tax on coins you haven't cashed out can force people to sell early. Sometimes they sell just to cover a tax bill on money they never touched. The fix would help everyday stakers too, not just large mining companies. But the provision isn't safe yet. Some Republicans on the committee are reportedly weighing whether to drop it entirely to win over skeptical Democrats before Wednesday.

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Does the mining and staking break survive Wednesday's markup, or does it get traded away for votes? Tax treatment like this rarely gets rewritten. Whatever the committee decides this week could stick around for years.