Key Takeaways:
- US Treasury Department to require transactions over $10,000 in crypto to be reported
- SEC Chairman Gary Gensler urges for crypto regulations and investor protection
More Than $10,000 In Crypto Need To Be Reported, Says US Treasury
The Department of Treasury is ramping up efforts to step into the realm of cryptocurrencies. Last week, the Treasury announced a plan that describes steps to crack down on cryptocurrency transactions. According to the released document, businesses who transfer more than $10,000 in cryptocurrency should report it to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
“Cryptocurrency already poses a significant detection problem by facilitating illegal activity broadly including tax evasion,” the release says.
“This is why the President’s proposal includes additional resources for the IRS to address the growth of cryptoassets,” the document declares. “Within the context of the new financial account reporting regime, cryptocurrencies and crypto asset exchange accounts and payment service accounts would be covered. So businesses that receive crypto assets with a fair market value of more than $10,000 would also be reported on.”
More Investor Protection Needed, Says IRS
The initiative comes as part of a larger effort by Joe Biden. He wants to make the IRS more powerful as a way to narrow down the cases for tax evasion. The new requirement is largely a surprise. Policymakers and regulators expressed their concerns over the unregulated nature of the crypto space. Over the past few months, they also expressed a need for a regulatory framework.
After that, the Treasury decided to take a more active role toward the looming crypto market. The Securities and Exchange Commission will introduce cryptocurrency regulations. Gary Gensler, the new SEC Chairman, last week said in a FINRA conference that investor protection is among the top priorities he and his agency should work on.
“We need to do whatever we can to ensure that bad actors aren’t playing with working families’ savings and that the rules are enforced aggressively and consistently,” Mr.Gensler said. “This is a quite volatile. One might say highly volatile. Asset class, and the investing public would benefit from more investor protection on the crypto exchanges.”
Mr.Gensler said he had also asked Congress to take the matter into consideration.
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