Key facts
- Digital asset groups are urging the House Ways and Means Committee to pass the Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act.
- Industry leaders are lobbying for favorable crypto tax policies, including exemptions from the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (CAMT).
- A private dinner was held with House members, including those from the Ways and Means Committee, to discuss crypto tax policy.
- A Treasury exemption aims to remove tax liabilities for crypto-holding corporations by addressing CAMT and unrealized gains.
- Proposals include taxing staking and mining rewards only upon disposition and redefining certain crypto swaps as non-taxable events.
Digital asset industry groups are actively lobbying Congress and the Trump administration to advance favorable tax policies, including the Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act. This effort runs parallel to broader market structure bill discussions in the Senate.
A private dinner hosted by the American Innovation Project brought together members of the House Ways and Means Committee and other pro-crypto legislators to discuss these tax priorities. Attendees included Representatives Adrian Smith, Brendan Boyle, Greg Murphy, Tom Suozzi, Jimmy Panetta, Ron Estes, Mike Carey, and Zach Nunn.
A key focus of the lobbying is a planned Treasury exemption that would address the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (CAMT). This 15% minimum tax on large firms' financial statement income could have imposed significant tax liabilities on companies holding large amounts of cryptocurrency, such as MicroStrategy, which holds over 640,000 Bitcoin. The Treasury's guidance, formalized in Notice 2025-49, introduces an 'FVI Exclusion Option' to disregard unrealized gains from assets like Bitcoin for tax purposes, preventing potential forced sales.
Beyond the CAMT relief, the industry is pushing for other tax advantages. These include proposals to tax staking and mining rewards only upon disposition, which would allow for indefinite tax deferral. Another controversial proposal seeks to redefine swaps between cryptocurrencies as non-taxable events, a move critics argue creates a loophole for tax avoidance.