The U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should promptly release planned crypto tax rules so the industry can be brought into full compliance, Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Calif) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass) said in a Monday letter.

"For many years, the cryptocurrency industry has been a major source of tax evasion and a significant part of the nation's tax gap," Sherman, who is a senior member of the House Committee on Financial Services, said in an accompanying press release.

The letter noted that while the White House may have completed the review of the 2021 infrastructure bill's hotly debated tax reporting requirements for crypto brokers in February, the government has yet to release the proposed regulations. The point of contention was a broad definition of "broker" that could apply the reporting requirement to miners and crypto wallet providers, who would not able to comply with the rule.

IRS official Julie Foerster said in April during CoinDesk's Consensus event that she could not say when the agency planned to update and clarify the guidance, and that it was looking into other ways of communicating with the industry so that taxpayers can voluntarily comply with the reporting requirement.

The lawmakers' letter said the crypto industry has had all of 2022 to prepare "and now it apparently gets 2023 off as well."

Regulations US taxes Brad Sherman Stephen Lynch

Sandali Handagama

Sandali Handagama is CoinDesk's deputy managing editor for policy and regulations, EMEA. She is an alumna of Columbia University's graduate school of journalism and has contributed to a variety of publications including The Guardian, Bloomberg, The Nation and Popular Science. Sandali doesn't own any crypto and she tweets as @iamsandali