(BlockBar) Ted Budd who is North Carolina Congressperson has highlighted two bills, while speaking at the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, which he hopes will receive bipartisan support. The bills are – The Cryptocurrency Tax Fairness Act and the Virtual Value Tax Fix of 2018. According to Budd, the development and protection of the domestic blockchain industry is an issue of national security. He said the above during his testimony. Threats can be eased through legislation as these threats come in the form of undue tax burdens to this industry.
The republican congressman announced that he will provide an updated version of The Virtual Value Tax Fix, which is his own legislation, to ensure that digital assets are recognized as property eligible for the like-kind exchange tax deferral under Section 10(31) of the Income-Tax Act. This is to be noted that The Cryptocurrency Tax Fairness Act is a bipartisan effort from last congress which was also co-sponsored by Budd and is now reintroducing, will “extend the de minimis exemption for personal transactions in foreign currency to cover transactions and Blockchain tokens as well.”
Budd said that the crypto industry is subject to the effective double taxation of blockchain-based transactions without like-kind exchange, be it a purchase or sale. He also called out the disproportionate record keeping burdens on taxpayers, as well as the cumulative deterrent impact on all blockchain-based activity from the foregoing consumer impacts.
According to Budd “An effective sales tax of nearly 40% penalizes the use of digital units of commerce. The use of digital assets is already treated as a sale of the asset, even though the economic reality of the transaction is a purchase of a simple consumer good.”
It is worth paying attention that this is not the first time when Budd called upon Congress or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for a bipartisan effort to better regulate the cryptocurrency industry. He has also asked the government to work with trade groups like the the Blockchain Association, Coin Center, and the Chamber of Digital Commerce to further the interests of individuals and businesses.
Mayan MV is a passionate writer and cryptocurrency enthusiast. He currently serves as marketing strategist and contributor at BlockBar, based in Singapore. Mayan has started his career in blockchain technology about five years ago, and he has also written over a hundred articles that span across various fields.
